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THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

IN 

CONNECTICUT 



-/ 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

EELIGIOFS LIBEETY 

IE COKNECTIOUT 



BY 



M. LOUISE GKEENE, PhD. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
1905 



C"^ 



NOV 1 I90S 't^^GcI 

GOP''? S. 



COPYRIGHT 1905 BY M. LOUISE GREENE 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Ptiilished November iqo^ 



PREFACE 

The following monograph is the outgrowth of 
three earlier and shorter essays. The first, 
"Church and State in Connecticut to 1818," 
was presented to Yale University as a doctor's 
thesis. The second, a briefer and more popularly 
written article, won the Straus prize offered in 
1896 through Brown University by the Hon. 
Oscar S. Straus. The third, a paper containing 
additional matter, was so far approved by the 
American Historical Association as to receive 
honorable mention in the Justin Winsor prize 
competition of 1901. 

With such encouragement, it seemed as if the 
history of the development of religious liberty in 
Connecticut might serve a larger purpose than 
that of satisfying personal interest alone. In 
Connecticut such development was not marked, 
as so often elsewhere, by wild disorder, outra- 
geous oppression, tyranny of classes, civil war, 
or by any great retrograde movement. Connect- 
icut was more modern in her progress towards 
such liberty, and her contribution to advancing 
civilization was a pattern of stability, of reason- 



vi PREFACE 

ableness in government, and of a slow broadening 
out of the conception of liberty, as she gradually 
softened down her restrictions upon religious and 
personal freedom. 

And yet', Connecticut is recalled as a part of 
that New England where those not Congrega- 
tionalists, the unorthodox or radical thinkers, 
found early and late an uncomfortable atmos- 
phere and restricted liberties. By a study of her 
past, I have hoped to contribute to a fairer judg- 
ment of the men and measures of colonial times, 
and to a correct estimate of those essentials in 
religion and morals which endure from age to 
age, and which alone, it would seem, must consti- 
tute the basis of that " ultimate union of Chris- 
tendom " toward which so many confidently look. 
The past should teach the present, and one gen- 
eration, from dwelling upon the transient beliefs 
and opinions of a preceding, may better judge 
what are the non-essentials of its own. 

Connecticut's individual experiment in the 
union of Church and State is separable neither 
from the New England setting of her earliest 
days nor from the early years of that Congrega- 
tionalism which the colony approved and es- 
tablished. Hence, the opening chapters of her 
story must treat of events both in old England 
and in New. And because religious liberty was 



PREFACE vii 

finally won by a coalition of men like-minded in 
their attitude towards rights of conscience and 
in their desire for certain necessary changes and 
reforms in government, the final chapters must 
deal with social and political conditions more 
than with those purely religious. It may be per- 
tinent to remark that the passing of a hundred 
years since the divorce of Church and State and 
the reforms of a century ago have brought to the 
commonwealth some of the same deplorable 
political conditions that the men of the past, 
the first Constitutional Eeform Party, swept 
away by the peaceful revolution of 1818. 

For encouragement, assistance, and sugges- 
tions, I am especially indebted to Professor 
George B. Adams and Professor Williston 
Walker of Yale University, to Professor Charles 
M. Andrews of Bryn Mawr, to Dr. William G. 
Andrews, rector of Christ Church, Guilford, 
Conn., and to Professor Lucy M. Salmon of Vas- 
sar College. Of numerous libraries, my largest 
debt is to that of Yale University. 

M. Louise Gkeene. 

New Haven, October 20, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Evolution of Early Congregationalism 1 

Preparation of the English nation for the two earliest forms of 
Congregationalism, Brownism and Barrowism. — Eise of Sepa- 
ratism and Puritanism, — Non-conformists during Queen Mary's 
reign. — Eevival of the Reformation movement under Queen 
Elizabeth. — Development of Presbyterianism. — Three Cam- 
bridge men, Robert Browne, Henry Greenwood, and Henry 
Barrowe. — Brownism and Barrowism. — The Puritans under 
Elizabeth, her early tolerance and later change of policy. — 
Arrest of the Puritan movement by the clash between Episcopal 
and Presbyterian forms of polity and the pretensions of the 
latter. — James the First and his policy of conformity. — Exile 
of the Gainsborough and Scrooby Separatists. — Separatist 
writings. — General approachment of Puritans and Separatists 
in their ideas of church polity. — The Scrooby exiles in Amer- 
ica. — Sympathy of the Separatists of Plymouth Colony with 
both the Enghsh EstabUshed Church and with English Pur- 
itans. 

II. The Transplanting of Congregationalism 41 

English Puritans decide to colonize in America. — Friendly re- 
lations between the settlements of Salem and Plymouth.— 
Salem decides upon the character of her church organization. — 
Arrival of Higginson and Skelton with recruits. — Formation of 
the Salem church and election of officers. — Governor Bradford 
and delegates from Plymouth present. — The beginning of Con- 
gregational polity among the Puritans and the break with 
English Episcopacy. — Formation and organization of the New 
England churches. 

III. Church and State in New England . 58 

Church and State in the four New England colonies. — Early 
theological dissensions and disturbances. — Colonial legislation 
in behalf of religion. — Development of state authority at the 
cost of the independence of the church. — Desire of Massachu- 
setts for a platform of church discipline. — Practical working of 
the theory of Church and State in Connecticut. 



X CONTENTS 

IV. The Cambridge Platform and the Half-Way 

Covenant 76 

Necessity of a church platform to resist innovations, to answer 
English criticism, and to meet changing conditions of colonial 
life. — Summary of the Cambridge Platform, — Of the history of 
Congregationalism to the year 1648. — Attempt to discipline the 
Hartford, Conn., church according to the Platform. — Spread of 
Its schism. —Petition to the Connecticut General Court for 
some method of relief.— The Ministerial Convention or " Synod " 
of 1657. — Its Half-Way Covenant. — Attitude of the Connecticut 
churches towards the measure. — Pitkin's petition to the Gen- 
eral Court of Connecticut for broader church privileges. — The 
Court's favorable reply.— Renewed outbreak of schism in the 
Hartford and other churches. — Failure in the calling of a 
synod of New England churches. — The Connecticut Court es- 
tablishes the Congregational Church. — Connecticut's first tol- 
eration act. — Settlement of the Hartford dispute. — The new 
order and its important modifications of ecclesiastical polity. 

V. A Period of Transition 121 

Drift from religious to secular, and from intercolonial to indi- 
vidual interests. — Reforming Synod of 1680. — Religious life In 
the last quarter of the seventeenth century. — The " Proposals 
of 1705 " in Massachusetts.— Introduction in Connecticut of the 
Saybrook System of Consociated Church government. 

VI. The Saybrook Platform .... 138 

The Confession of Faith. — Heads of Agreement. — Fifteen 
Articles. — Attitude of the churches towards the Platform.— 
Formation of Consociations. — The " Proviso " in the act of es- 
tablishment. — Neglect to read the proviso to the Norwich 
church. — Contention arising. — The Norwich church as an ex- 
ample of the difficulty of collecting church rates. 

VII. The Saybrook Platform and the Toleration 

Act 153 

Toleration in the "Proviso" of the act establishing the Say- 
brook Platform. — Reasons for passing the Toleration Act 
of 1708. — Baptist dissenters. — Rogerine-Baptists, Rogerine- 
Quakers or Rogerines, and their persecution. — Attitude toward 
the Society of Friends or Quakers. — Toward the Church of 
England men or Episcopalians. — Political events parallel in 
time with the dissenters' attempts to secure exemption from the 
support of the Connecticut Establishment. — General ineffec- 
tiveness of the Toleration Act. 

VIII. The First Victory for Dissent . . 191 

General dissatisfaction with the Toleration Act. — Episcopa- 
lians resent petty persecution. — Their desire for an American 



CONTENTS xi 

episcopate. — Conversion of Cutler, Eector of Yale College, and 
others. — Bishop Gibson's correspondence with Governor Tal- 
cott. — Petition of the Fairfield churchmen. — Law of 1727 ex- 
empting Churchmen. — Persecution growing out of neglect to 
enforce the law. — Futile efforts of the Eogerines to obtain ex- 
emption. — Charges against the Colony of Connecticut. — The 
Winthrop case. — Quakers attempt to secure exemption from 
ecclesiastical rates. — Exemption granted to Quakers and 
Baptists. — Relative position of the dissenting and established 
churches in Connecticut. 

IX. "The Great Awakening" . . . .220 

Minor revivals in Connecticut before 1740. — Low tone of moral 
and religious life.— Jonathan Edwards's sermons at North- 
ampton. — Revival of religious interest and its spread among 
the people, — The Rev. George Whitefleld. — The Great Awak- 
ening. — Its immediate results, 

X. The Great Schism 233 

The Separatist churches. — Old Lights and New. — Opposition 
to the revival movement. — Severe colony laws of 1742-43.— 
Illustrations of oppression of reformed churches, as the North 
Church of New Haven, the Separatist Church of Canterbury, 
and that of Enfield. — Persecution of individuals, as of Rev. 
Samuel Finlay, James Davenport, John Owen, and Benjamin 
Pomeroy. — Persecution of Moravian missionaries. — The col- 
ony law of 1746, " Concerning who shall vote in Society meeting." 

— Change in public opinion. — Summary of the influence of the 
Great Awakening and of the great schism. 

XI. The Abrogation of the Saybrook Platform 273 

Revision of the laws of 1750. — Attitude of the colonial authori- 
ties toward Baptists and Separatists. — Influence on colonial 
legislation of the English Committee of Dissenters. — Formation 
of the Church of Yale College. — Separatist and Baptist writers 
in favor of toleration. —Frothingham's " Articles of Faith and 
Practice." — Solomon Paine's " Letter." — John Bolles's " To 
Worship God in Spirit and in Truth." — Israel Holly's "A 
Word in Zion's Behalf." — Frothingham's " Key to Unlock the 
Door." — Joseph Brown's " Letter to Infant Baptizers." — 
The importance of the colonial newspaper. — Influence of Eng- 
lish non-conformity upon the religious thought of New England. 

— The Edwardean School. — Hopkinsinianism and the New 
Divinity. — The clergy and the people. — Controversy over the 
renewed proposal for an American episcopate. — Movement for 
consolidation among all religious bodies. — Influences promot- 
ing nationalism and, indirectly, religious toleration. — Connect- 
icut at the threshold of the Revolution. — Connecticut clergymen 
as advocates of civil liberty. — Greater toleration in religion 



xii CONTENTS 

granted by the laws of 1770. — Development of the idea of de- 
mocracy in Church and State, — Exemption of Separatists by the 
revision of the laws in 1784. — Virtual abrogation of the Say- 
brook Platform. — Status of Dissenters. 

XII. Connecticut at the Close of the Revolu- 

tion 342 

Expansion of towns. — Eevival of commerce and industries. — 
Schools and literature. — Newspapers. — Kise of the Anti- 
Federal party. — Baptist, Methodist, and Separatist dissatisfac- 
tion. — Growth of a broader conception of toleration within the 
Consociated churches. 

XIII. Certificate Laws and Western Land 

Bills 368 

Opposition to the Establishment from dissenters, Anti-Federal- 
ists, and the dissatisfied within the Federal ranlcs. — Certificate 
law of 1791 to allay dissatisfaction. — Its opposite effect. —A 
second Certificate law to replace the former. — Antagonism 
created by legislation in favor of Yale College. — Storm of pro- 
test against the Western Land bills of 1792-93. — Congregational 
missions in Western territory. — Baptist opposition to legislative 
measures. — The revised Western Land bill as a basis for Con- 
necticut's public school fund. — Result of the opposition roused 
by the Certificate laws and Western Land bills. 

XIV. The Development of Political Parties in 

Connecticut 393 

Government according to the charter of 1662. — Party tilt over 
town representation. — Anti-Federal grievances against the 
Council or Senate, the Judiciary, and other defective parts of 
the machinery of government. — Constitutional questions. — 
Else of tlie Democratic-Republican party. — Influence of the 
French Eevolution. — The Federal members of the Establish- 
ment or " Standing Order," the champions of religious and 
political stability. — President Dwight, the leader of the Stand- 
ing Order. — Leaders of the Democratic-Eepublicans. — Politi- 
cal campaigns of 1804-1806. — Sympathy for the defeated Eepub- 
licans. — Politics at the close of the War of 1812. 

XV. Disestablishment 445 

Waning of the power of the Federal party in Connecticut. — 
Opposition to the Eepublican administration during the War 
of 1812. — Participation in the Hartford Convention. — Economic 
benefits of the war. — Attitude of the New England clergy to- 
ward the war. — The Toleration party of 1816. — Act for the 
Support of Literature and Religion. — Opposition. — Toleration 



CONTENTS xiii 

and Eef orm Ticket of 1817. — New Certificate Law. — Constitu- 
tion and Reform Ticket of 1818. — Its victory. — The Constitu- 
tional Convention. — New Constitution of 1818. — Separation of 
Church and State. 

APPENDIX 

Notes 497 

BiBLIOGKAPHY 514 

INDEX 545 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 
LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 



CHAPTER I 



THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGA- 
TIONALISM 

The stone which the builders rejected is become the head 
of the corner. — Psalm cxviii, 22. 

The colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and New Haven were grounded in the 
system which became known as Congregational, 
and later as Congregationalism. At the outset 
they differed not at all in creed, and only in some 
respects in polity, from the great Puritan body 
in England, out of which they largely came.^ 

« " Our pious Ancestors transported themselves with regard 
unto Church Order and Discipline, not with respect to the Fun- 
damentals in Doctrine." — Richard Mather, Attestation to the 
Ratio Disciplina, p. 10. 

" The issue on which the Pilgrims and Puritans alike left 
sweet fields and comfortable homes and settled ways of the 
land of their birth for this raw wilderness, was primarily an 
issue of politics rather than of the substance of religious life.'' 
— G. L. Walker, Some Aspects of Religious Life in New Eng' 
land, p. 19. 



2 THE DEVELOPMENT OP RELIGIOUS 

For more than forty years before tlieir migra- 
tion to New England there had been in old Eng- 
land two clearly developed forms of Congrega- 
tionalism, Brownism and Barrowism. The term 
Congregationalism, with its allied forms Congre- 
gational and Congregationalist, would not then 
have been employed. They did not come into 
general use until the latter half of the seventeenth 
century, and were at first limited in usage to de- 
fining or referring to the modified church system 
of New England. The term " Independent " was 
preferred to designate the somewhat similar polity 
among the nonconformist churches in old Eng- 
land.'^ Brownism and Barrowism are both in- 
cluded in Dr. Dexter's comprehensive definition 
of Congregationalism, using the term " to desig- 
nate that system of thought, faith, and practice, 
which starting with the dictum that the condi- 
tions of church life are revealed in the Bible, and 
are thence to be evolved by reverent common- 
sense, assisted but never controlled by all other 

« " After the 17th century ' Independent ' was chiefly used 
in England, while ' Congregational ' was decidedly preferred 
in New England, where the ' consociation ' of the churches 
formed a more important feature of the system." " Congre- 
gational " first appeared in manuscript in 1639, in priat in 
1642. " Congregationalist " appeared in 1692, and " Congrega- 
tionalism," not until 1716. — J. Murray, A New English Diet. 
on Hist. Principles. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 3 

sources of knowledge; interprets that book as 
teaching the reality and independent competency 
of the local church, and the duty of fraternity 
and co-working between such churches; from 
these two truths symmetrically developing its en- 
tire system of principles, privileges, and obliga^ 
tions." 1 The " independent competency of the 
local church " is directly opposed to any system 
of episcopal government within the church, and 
is diametrically opposed to any control by king, 
prince, or civil government. Yet this was one of 
the pivotal dogmas of Browne and of the later 
Separatists ; this, a fundamental doctrine which 
Barrowe strove to incorporate into a new church 
system, but into one having sufficient control 
over its local units to make it acceptable to a 
people who were accustomed to the autonomy 
and stability of a church both episcopal and 
national in character. 

In order to appreciate the changes in church 
polity and in the religious temper of the people 
for which Browne and Barrowe labored, one 
must survey the field in which they worked and 

1. See note 1, p. 2 of Notes. Notes are divided into explana- 
tory and authoritative. The latter class, giving for the most part 
authorities only, have been grouped at the end of the volume, 
and throughout the text are indicated by Arabic numerals. The 
notes explanatory or expository in character are found as foot- 
notes, and referred to in the text by letters of the alphabet. 



4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

note such preparation as it had received before 
their advent. It is to be recalled that Henry 
VIII substituted for submission to the Pope 
submission to himself as head of a church essen- 
tially Romish in ritual, teaching, and authority 
over his subjects. The religious reformation, as 
such, came later and by slow evolution through 
the gradual awakening of the moral and spiritual 
perceptions of the masses. It came very slowly 
notwithstanding the fact that the first definite 
and systematic opposition to the abuses and as- 
sumptions of the clergy had arisen long before 
Henry's reign. As early as 1382, the itinerant 
preachers, sent out by Wyckliff , were complained 
of by the clergy and magistrates as teachers of 
insubordinate and dangerous doctrines. Thence- 
forward, outcroppings of dissatisfaction with the 
clergy appear from time to time both in Eng- 
lish life and literature. This dissatisfaction was 
silenced by various acts of Parliament which 
were passed to enforce conformity and to punish 
heresy. Their character and intent were the 
same whether the head of the church wore the 
papal tiara or the English crown. Two hun- 
dred years after Wyckliff, in 1582, laws were 
still fulminated against " divers false and per- 
verse people of certain new sects," for Protestant 
England would support but one form of religion 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 5 

as tlie moral prop of the state. She regarded all 
innovations as questionable, or wholly evil, and 
their authors as dangerous men. Chief among the 
latter was Robert Browne. But before Browne's 
advent and in the days of Henry the Eighth, there 
had been a large, respectable, and steadily in- 
creasing party whose desire was to remain within 
the English church, but to purify it from super- 
stitious rites and practices, such as penances, pil- 
grimages, forced oblations, and votive offerings. 
They wished also to free the ritual from many 
customs inherited from the days of Rome's su- 
premacy. It was in this party that the leaven of 
Protestantism had been working. Luther and 
Henry, be it remembered, had died within a 
year of each other. Under the feeble rule of Ed- 
ward the Sixth, the English reform movement 
gained rapidly, and, in 1550, upon the refusal of 
Bishop Hooper to be consecrated in the usual 
Romish vestments, it began to crystallize in two 
forms, Separatism and Puritanism." In spite of 
much opposition, the teachings of Luther, Cal- 
vin, and other Continental reformers took root in 
England, and interested men of widely different 

« Separatism is commonly said to date from the year 1554. 
About 1564, the other branch of the reform party was nick- 
named " Puritan." — G. L. Walker, History of the First Church 
in Hartford, p. 6. 



6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

classes. They stirred to new activity the scat- 
tered and persecuted groups, that, from time to 
time, had met in secret in London and elsewhere 
to read the Scriptures and to worship with their 
elected leaders in some simpler form of service 
than that prescribed by law. Under Mary's per- 
secution, these Separatists increased, and with 
other Protestants swelled the roll of martyrs. In 
her severity, the Queen also drove into exile 
many able and learned men, who sought shelter 
in Geneva, Zurich, Basle, and Frankfort, where 
they were hospitably entertained. Upon their re- 
turn, there was a marked increase in the Calvin- 
istic tone both of preaching and teaching in the 
English church and in the university lecture 
rooms, especially those of Cambridge. Among 
the most influential teachers was Thomas Cart- 
wright," in 1560-1562, Lady Margaret Pro- 
fessor of Divinity at Cambridge. While having 
no sympathy with the nonconformist or Separatist 
of his day, Cartwright accepted the polity and 
creed of Calvin in its severer form. He became 

« Another noted preacher who left an indelible impression 
upon several early New Eng'land ministers was William Per- 
kins, who was in discourse " strenuous, searching, and ultra- 
Calvinistic." He was a Cambridge man, filling the positions of 
Professor of Divinity, Master of Trinity, and Chancellor of the 
University. — G. L. Walker, Some Aspects of the Religious Life 
in New England, p. 14. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 7 

junior-dean of St. John's, major-fellow of Trinity, 
and a member of the governing-board. In 1565 
he went to Ireland to escape the heated contro- 
versy of the period which centred in the " Yes- 
tiarian" movement. He was recalled in 1569 to 
his former professorship, and in September, 1571, 
was forced out of it because, when controversy 
changed from vestments to polity, he took ex- 
treme views of church discipline and repudiated 
episcopal government." While Cartwright was 
very pronounced in his views, his desire at first 
was that the changes in church polity should be 
brought about by the united action of the Crown 
and Parliament. Such had been the method of 
introducing changes under the three sovereigns, 
Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth. With this brief 
summary of the reform movements among the 

« Cartwriglit in 15Y4, the year of its publication, translated 
Travers's Ecclesiasticae Disciplinae et Anglicanae Ecclesiae ah 
ilia Aherrationis, plena e verbo Dei Sf dilucida Explicatio, and 
made it the basis of a practical attempt to introduce the Pres- 
byterian system into England. More than five hundred of the 
clergy seconded his attempt, subscribing to the principles that 
(1) there can be only one right form of church government, 
but one church order and one form of church, namely, that 
described in the Scriptures ; (2) that every local church should 
have a presbytery of elders to direct its afEairs ; and (3) that 
every church should obey the combined opinion of all the 
churches in fellowship with it. In this declaration lay a blow 
at the Queen's supremacy. — H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism 
as seen in Lit. p. 55. 



8 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

masses and in the universities covering the years 
until Cartwright, through the influence of the 
ritualistic church party, was expelled from Cam- 
bridge, and Eobert Browne, as a student there, 
came under the strong Puritan influence of the 
university, we pass to a consideration of Brown- 
ism. 

Robert Browne was graduated from Cam- 
bridge in 1572, the year after Cartwright's ex- 
pulsion. The next three years he taught in 
London and " wholly bent himself to search and 
find out the matters of the church : as to how it 
was guided and ordered, and what abuses there 
were in the ecclesiastical government then used." ^ 
When the plague broke out in London, Browne 
went to Cambridge. There, he refused to accept 
the bishop's license to preach, though urged to do 
so, because he had come to consider it as con- 
trary to the authority of the Scriptures. Never- 
theless, he continued preaching until he was 
silenced by the prelate. Browne then went to 
Norwich, preaching there and at Bury St. Ed- 
munds, both of which had been gathering-places 
for the Separatists. At Norwich, he organized a 
church. Writing of Browne's labors there in 
1580 and 1581, Dr. Dexter says: "Here, fol- 
lowing the track which he had been long elabo- 
rating, he thoroughly discovered and restated 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 9 

the original Congregational way in all its sim- 
plicity and symmetry. And here, by his prompt- 
ing and under his guidance, was formed the first 
church in modern days of which I have any 
knowledge, which was intelligently and one might 
say philosophically Congregational in its platform 
and processes ; he becoming its pastor." ^ Per- 
secution followed Browne to Norwich, and in 
order to escape it he, in 1581, migrated with his 
church to Middelburg, in Zealand. There, for 
two years, he devoted himself to authorship, 
wherein he set forth his teachings. His books 
and pamphlets, which had been proscribed in 
England, were printed in Middelburg and se- 
cretly distributed by his friends and followers at 
home. But Browne's temperament was not of the 
kind to hold and mould men together, while his 
doctrine of equality in church government was 
too strong food for people who, for generations, 
had been subservient to a system that demanded 
only their obedience. His church soon disinte- 
grated. With but a remnant of his following, he 
returned in 1583 by way of Scotland into Eng- 
land, finding everywhere the strong hand of the 
government stretched out in persecution. Three 
years later, after having been imprisoned in noi- 
some cells some thirty times within six years, 
utterly broken in health, if not weakened also in 



10 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

mind, and never feeling safe from arrest while 
in his own land, Browne finally sought pardon 
for his offensive teachings and, obtaining it, re- 
entered the English communion. Though he was 
given a smaU parish, he was looked upon as a 
renegade, and died in poverty about 1631, at 
an extreme old age. He died while the Pil- 
grim Separatists were still a struggling colony at 
Plymouth, repudiating the name of Brownists; 
before the colonial churches had embodied in their 
system most of the fundamentals of his ; and long 
before the value of his teachings as to democracy, 
whether in the church or by extension in the state, 
had dawned upon mankind. 

The connecting link between Brownism and 
Barrowism, whose similarities and dissimilarities 
we shall consider together, or rather the connect- 
ing link between Eobert Browne and Henry 
Barrowe, was another Cambridge student, John 
Greenwood. He was graduated in 1581, the year 
that Browne removed to Middelburg. Greenwood 
had become so enamored with Separatist doc- 
trines, that within five years of his graduation he 
was deprived of his benefice, in 1586, and sent 
to prison. While there, he was visited by his 
friend, Henry Barrowe, a young London law3^er, 
who, through the chance words of a London 
preacher, had been converted from a wild, gay 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 11 

life to one devout and godly. During a visit to 
Greenwood, Barrowe was arrested and sent to 
Lambeth Palace for examination. Upon refusing 
to take the oath required by the bishop, Barrowe 
was remanded to prison to await further exam- 
ination. Later, he damaged himself and his cause 
by an unnecessarily bitter denunciation of his 
enemies and by a too dogmatic assertion of his 
own principles. Accordingly, he was sent back 
to prison, where, together with Greenwood, he 
awaited trial until March, 1593. Then, upon the 
distorted testimony of their writings, both men 
were sentenced as seditious fellows, worthy of 
death. Though twice reprieved at the seemingly 
last hour, they were hanged together on April 6, 
1593. 

Both Greenwood and Barrowe frequently as- 
serted that they never had anything to do with 
Browne.* Yet it is probable that it was Browne'^ 
influence which turned Greenwood's puritanical 
convictions to Separatist principles. Barrowe had 
been graduated from Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 
1569-70; Browne, from Corpus Christi in 1572. 
The two men, so different in character, probably 
did not meet in university days, and certainly 
not later in London, where one went to a life of 
pleasure and the other to teaching and to the 
study of the Scriptures. Greenwood, however, 



12 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

had entered Cambridge in 1577-78, and left it 
in 1581. Thus he was in coUege during the two 
years that Browne was preaching in and near 
Cambridge. It is safe to assume that the young 
scholar, soon to become a licensed preacher, and 
overflowing with the Puritan zeal of his coUege, 
might be drawn either through curiosity or ad- 
miration to hear the erratic and almost fanatic 
preacher. Later, when Browne's writings were 
being secretly distributed in England, both 
Barrowe and Greenwood had come in contact 
with the London congregations to whom Browne 
had preached. The fact that many men in Eng- 
land were thinking along the same hues as the 
Separatists ; that Browne had recanted just as 
Barrowe and Greenwood were thrust into prison ; 
and that they both disapproved in some measure 
of Browne's teachings, might account for a denial 
of discipleship. Browne's influence might even 
have been unrecognized by the men themselves. 
Be that as it may, during their long imprison- 
ment, both Barrowe and Greenwood, in their 
teachings, in their public conferences, and in their 
writings strove to outline a system of church gov- 
ernment and discipline, which was very similar to 
and yet essentially different from Browne's. 

Thus it happened that in the last decade of the 
sixteenth century two forms of Congregational- 



LIBERTY m CONNECTICUT 13 

ism had developed, Brownism and Barrowism. 
Neither Browne nor Barrowe felt any need, as did 
their later followers, to demonstrate their doc- 
trinal soundness, because in all matters of creed 
they " were in full doctrinal sympathy with the 
predominantly Calvinistic views of the English 
Established Church from which they had come 
out." 

" Browne, first of all English writers, set forth 
the Anabaptist doctrine that the civil ruler had 
no control over the spiritual affairs of the church 
and that State and Church were separate realms."^ 
In the beginning, Browne's foremost wish was not 
to establish a new church system or polity, but to 
encourage the spiritual life of the believer. To 
this end he desired separation from the English 
church, which, like all other state churches, in- 
cluded all baptized persons, not excommunicate, 
whether faithful or not to their baptismal or con- 
firmation vows to lead godly lives.^ Moreover, as 
Browne did not believe that the magistrates should 
have power to coerce men's consciences, teaching, 
as he did, that the mingling of church offices and 
civil offices was anti-Christian,^ he was unwilling 
to wait for a reformation to be brought about 
by the changing laws of the state. ^ He further 
advocated such equality of power ^ among the 
members of the church that in its government a 



14 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

democracy resulted, and this theory, pushed to a 
logical conclusion, implied that a democratic form 
of civil government was also the best." Browne 
roughly draughted a government for the church 
with pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and wid- 
ows. He insisted, however, that these officers did 
not stand between Christ and the ordinary be- 
liever, " though they haue the grace and office of 
teaching and guiding. . . . Because eurie one of 
the church is made Kinge, and Priest and a 
Prophet, under Christ, to vpholde and further 
the kingdom of God." 

Browne and Barrowe both made the Bible their 
guide in aU matters of church life. From its text 
they deduced the definition of a true church as, 
" A company of faithful people gathered by the 

" " Browne's polity was essentially, though unintentionally, 
democratic, and that gives it a closer resemblance in some fea- 
tures to the purely democratic Congregationalism of the present 
century, than to the more aristocratic, one might almost say 
semi-Preshyterianized, Congregationalism of Barrowe and the 
founders of New England. His picture of the covenant relation 
of men in the church, under the immediate sovereignty of God, 
he extended to the state ; and it led him as directly, and prob- 
ably as unintentionally, to democracy in the one field as in the 
other. His theory implied that all governors should rule by 
the will of the governed, and made the basis of the state on its 
human side essentially a compact." — W. Walker, Creeds and 
Platforms, pp. 15, 16. See also H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism 
as seen in Lit., pp. 96-107 ; 235-39 ; 351 ; R. Browne, Book 
which Sheweth, Def., 51. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 15 

Word unto Christ and submitting themselves in 
all things ; " of a Christian, as one who had made 
a " willing covenant with God, and thereby did 
live a godly and Christian life." ^^ This cove- 
nanting together of Christians constituted a 
church. From their interpretation of the New Tes- 
tament, Browne and Barrowe held that this cov- 
enanting included repentance for sin, a profession 
of faith, and a promise of obedience. Moreover, 
to their minds, primitive Christianity had insisted 
upon a public, personal narration of each covenan- 
ter's regenerative experience. From sacred writ 
they derived their church organization also.^i 
Their pastors were for exhorting or " edifying by 
all comfortable words and promises in the Scrip- 
tures, to work in our hearts the estimate of our 
duties with love and zeal thereunto." Their teach- 
ers were for teaching or "delivering the grounds 
of Religion and meaning of the Scriptures and 
confirming the same." Both officers were to ad- 
minister baptism and the Lord's supper, or " the 
Seals of the Covenant." The elders included 
both pastors and teachers and also " Ruling Eld- 
ers," all of whom were for " oversight, counsel, 
and redressing things amiss," but the ruling elders 
were to give special attention to the public order 
and government of the church . According to both 
Browne and Barrowe, these officers were to be 



16 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the mouthpiece of the church in the admission, 
censure, dismissal, or readmission of members. 
They were to prepare matters to be brought be- 
fore the church for action. They were also to 
adjust matters, when possible, so as to avoid 
overburdening the church or its pastor and 
teacher with trivial business. In matters spiritual, 
they were to unite with the pastor and teacher 
in keeping watch over the lives of the people, that 
they be of good character and godly reputation. 
Browne taught that the church had power 
which it shared with its officers as fellow-Chris- 
tians, but which lifted it above them and their 
office. It lay with the church to elect them. It 
lay with the church to censure them. Barrowe 
also maintained that the church was " above its 
institutions, above its officers," ^^ and that every 
officer was responsible to the church and liable 
to its censure as well as indebted to it for his 
election and office. But he further maintained 
that the members of the church should render 
meek and submissive, faithful and loving obedi- 
ence to their chosen elders. Barrowe thus taught 
that guidance in religious matters should be left 
in the hands of those to whom by election it had 
been delegated. The elders were to be men of 
discernment, able to judge " between cause and 
cause, plea and plea," to redress evil, and to see 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 17 

that both the people and their officers ^ did their 
fuU duty in accordance with the laws of God and 
the ordinances of the church. Barrowe had seen 
the confusion and disintegration of Browne's 
church, and he planned by thus introducing the 
Calvinistic theory of eldership to avoid the pit- 
falls into which the Brownists had plunged while 
practicing their new-found principle of religious 
equality. Barrowe hoped by his system to secure 
the independence of the local churches and also 
to avoid the repellent attitude of a nation that 
was as yet unprepared to welcome any trend to- 
wards democracy.^ Having devised this system 

« Barrowe wrote, " Thoug-h there be communion in the 
Church, yet is there no equality." This is in strong contrast to 
Browne's, " Every one of the church is made King and Priest 
and Prophet under Christ to uphold and further the kingdom 
of God." Barrowe continues, " The Church of Christ is to 
obey and submit unto her leaders. . . . The Church knoweth 
how to give reverence unto her leaders." In his True Descrip- 
tion there is a hazy attempt to define how far the membership 
of the church may judge its elders. This authority of the 
elders was defined more clearly and elaborated by Barrowe's 
followers in their True Confession, published in Amsterdam 
in 1596-98. — H. Barrowe, A True Description ; Discovery 
of False Churches, p. 188; A Plain Refutation of Mr. Gifford, 
p. 129 (ed. of 1605). 

h "Traces of tHis (Barrowe's) innovation on apostolic Con- 
gregationalism have been aptly characterized as a Presbyterian 
heart within a Congregational body, and are seen long after the 
denomination grew to be a power in New England." — A. E. 
Dunning, Congregationalists in America, p. 61. 



18 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

of compromise, Barrowe made a futile attempt to 
interest Cartwright, but the latter regarded tlie 
reformer as too heretical. Yet Cartwright him- 
self, tired of waiting for the better day when his 
desired reforms should be brought about through 
the operation of Parliamentary laws, was attempt- 
ing in Warwickshire and Northamptonshire to 
test his system of Presbyterianism. 

To the list of church officers already enumer- 
ated, both reformers added deacons and widows. 
The deacons were to attend to the church finances 
and all temporal cares, and, in their visiting of 
the sick and afflicted, they were to be aided by 
the widows. The latter office, however, soon fell 
into disuse, for it was difficult to find women of 
satisfactory character, attainments, and physical 
ability, since, in order to avoid scandal or cen- 
soriousness, those filling the office had to be of 
advanced years." 

With respect to the relation of the churches 
among themselves, Browne and Barrowe each 
insisted upon the integral independence and self- 
governing powers of the local units. Both ap- 
proved of the " sisterly advice " of neighboring 
churches in matters of mutual interest. Both held 
that in matters of great weight, synods, or coun- 
cils of all the churches should be summoned ; 

« Barrowe says, " over sixty." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 19 

that the delegates to such bodies should advise 
and bring the wisdom of their united experience 
to questions affecting the welfare of aU the 
churches, and also, when in consultation upon 
serious cases, that any one church should lay- 
before them. Browne insisted that delegates 
to synods should be both ministerial and lay, 
while Barrowe leaned to the conviction that 
they should be chosen only from among the 
church officers. Both reformers limited the power 
of synods, maintaining that they should be con- 
sultative and advisory only.^^ Their decisions 
were not to be binding upon the churches as were 
those of the Presbyterian synods," whose author- 
ity both reformers regarded as a violation of 
Gospel rule. The church system, outlined by these 
two men, became, in time, the organization of the 
churches of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, and New Haven. The character of their 
polity fluctuated, as we shall see, leaning some- 
times more to Barrowism and sometimes, or in 
some respects, emphasizing the greater democracy 
which Browne taught. In England, and because 
of the pressure of circumstances among English 

« The first English Presbytery was org-anized in 1572. 
Among- its organizers, there wag the seeming determination 
to treat the Episcopal system as a mere legal appendage. — 
F. J. Powicke, Henry Barrowe, p. 139. 



20 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

exiles and colonists, Barrowe's teachings at first 
gained tlie stronger hold and kept it for many 
years. Moreover, as Barrowe's almost immediate 
followers embraced them, there was no objection 
to the customary union of church and state. And 
furthermore, if only the state would uphold this 
peculiar polity, it might even insist upon the pay- 
ment of contributions, which both Browne and 
Barrowe had distinctly stated were to be voluntary 
and were to be the only support of their churches. 
Though Barrowism was more welcomed, eventu- 
ally — yet not until long after the colonial period 
— Brownism triumphed, and it predominates in 
the Congregationalism of to-day. 

The immediate spread of Barrowism was due 
to the poor Separatists of London. Doubtless 
among them were many who in the preceding 
years had listened to Browne and had begun to 
look up to him as their Luther. While Barrowe 
and Greenwood were in prison, many of these 
Separatists had gone to hear them preach and 
had studied their writings. During the autumn 
of 1592, there had been some relaxation in the 
severity exercised toward the prisoners, and 
Greenwood was allowed occasionally to be out of 
jail under bail. He associated himself with these 
Separatists, who, according to Dr. Dexter, had 
organized a church about five years before, and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 21 

who at once elected Greenwood to tlie office of 
teacher. Dr. John Brown, writing later than Dr. 
Dexter, claims this London church as the parent 
of English Congregationalism. To make good 
the claim, he traces the history of the church by 
means of references in Bradford's History, Fox's 
" Book of Martyrs," and in recently discovered 
state papers to its existence as a Separate church 
under Elizabeth, when, as early as 1571, its pas- 
tor, Richard Fitz, had died in prison. Dr. Brown 
believes he can still farther trace its origin to 
Queen Mary's reign, when a Mr. Rough, its pas- 
tor, suffered martyrdom, and one Cuthbert Sjnup- 
son was deacon.^* After the death of Greenwood 
and Barrowe, this London congregation was sore 
pressed. Their pastor, Francis Johnson, having 
been thrown into prison, they began to make 
their way secretly to Amsterdam. There John- 
son joined them in 1597, soon after his release. 
To this London- Amsterdam church were gath- 
ered Separatist exiles from all parts of England, 
for converts were increasing," especially in the 
rural districts of the north, notwithstanding the 

" At the height of its prosperity this church contained ahout 
three hundred communicants, with representatives from twenty- 
nine English counties. Among them was one John Bolton, who 
had been a member of Mr. Fitz's church in 1571. At the be- 
ginning of James the First's reign, 1603, Separatist converts 
numbered 20,000 souls in England. 



22 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

fact that persecution followed hard upon conver- 
sion. 

The policy of Elizabeth during the earlier 
years of her reign was one of forbearance towards 
inoffensive Catholics and of toleration towards 
all Protestants. Caring nothing for religion as 
such, her aim was to secure peace and to increase 
the stability of her realm. This she did by crush- 
ing malcontent Catholics, by balancing the fac- 
tions of Protestantism, and by holding in check 
the extremists, whether High-Churchmen or the 
ultra-Puritan followers of Cartwright. She had 
forced on the contending factions a sort of armed 
truce and silenced the violent antagonism of pul- 
pit against pulpit by licensing preachers. The 
Acts of Supremacy and of Uniformity placed all 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as well as all legislative 
power, in the hands of the state. They outlined 
a system of church doctrine and discipline from 
which no variation was legally permitted. Not- 
withstanding the enforced outward conformity, 
the Bible was left open to the masses to study, 
and private discussion and polemic writing were 
unrestrained. The main principles of the Refor- 
mation were accepted, even while Elizabeth re- 
sisted the sweeping reforms which the strong 
Calvinistic faction of the Puritan party would 
have made in the ceremonial of the English 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 23 

church. This she did notwithstanding the fact 
that about the time Thomas Cartwright, through 
the influence of the ritualists under Whitgift, 
had been driven from Cambridge, Parliament 
had refused to bind the clergy to the Three Ar- 
ticles on Supremacy, on the form of Church gov- 
ernment, and on the power of the Church to ordain 
rites and ceremonies. Parliament had even sug- 
gested a reform of the liturgy by omitting from 
it those ceremonies most obnoxious to the Puritan 
party." That representative assembly had but 
reflected the desire of all moderate statesmen, as 
well as of the Puritans. But, in the twelve years 
between Cartwright's dismissal from Cambridge 
and Browne's preaching there without a license, 
a great change took place, altering the sentiment 
of the nation. All but extremists drew back when 
Cartwright pushed his Presbyterian notions to 
the point of asserting that the only power which 
the state rightfully held over religion was to see 
that the decrees of the churches were executed 

« " The wish for a reform in the Liturgy, the dislike of 
superstitious usages, of the use of the surplice, the sign of the 
cross in baptism, the gift of the ring in marriage, the posture 
of kneeling at the Lord's Supper, was shared by a large num- 
ber of the clergy and laity alike. At the opening of Elizabeth's 
reign almost all the higher churchmen but Parker were op- 
posed to them, and a motion for their abolition in Convocation 
was lost but by a single vote." — J. R. Green, Short History of 
the English People, p. 459. 



24 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and their contemners punished, or when this re- 
former still further asserted that the power and 
authority of the church was derived from the 
Gospel and consequently was above Queen or 
Parliament. Cartwright claimed for his church 
an infallibility and control of its members far 
above the claims of Rome, and, tired of waiting 
for a purification of existing conditions by legis- 
lative acts, he had, as has been said, boldly organ- 
ized, in accordance with his system, the clergy of 
Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. The local 
churches were treated as self-governing units, but 
were controlled by a series of authoritative Classes 
and Synods. Having done this, Cartwright called 
for the establishment of Presbyterianism as the 
national church and for the vigorous suppression 
of Episcopacy, Separatism, and all variations 
from his standard. As he thus struck at the 
national church, at the Queen's supremacy, and, 
seemingly to many Englishmen, at the very roots 
of civil government and security, there was a 
sudden halt in the reform movement. The im- 
petus which would have probably brought about 
all the changes that the great body of Puritans 
desired was arrested. Richard Hooker's " Eccle- 
siastical Polity " swept the ground from under 
Thomas Cartwright's " Admonition to Parlia- 
ment." Hooker's broad and philosophic reasoning 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 25 

showed that no one system of church-government 
was immutable; that all were temporary; and that 
not upon any man's interpretation of Scripture, 
or upon that of any group of men alone, could 
the divine ordering of the world, of the church 
or of the state, be based. Such order depended 
upon moral relations, upon social and political in- 
stitutions, and changed with times and nations. 
The death of Mary Queen of Scots crushed 
the Catholic party, and the defeat of the Armada 
left Elizabeth free to turn her attention to the 
phases of the Protestant movement in her own 
realm. While Browne was preaching in Norwich, 
the Queen raised Whitgift to the See of Canter- 
bury. He was the bitter opponent of all noncon- 
formity, and immediately the persecution both of 
Separatists and of Puritans became severe. Eliza- 
beth, sure at last of her throne and of her posi- 
tion as head of the Protestant cause in Europe, 
gave her minister a free hand. She demanded 
rigid conformity, but wisely forbore to revive 
many of the customs which the Puritans had suc- 
ceeded in rendering obsolete. Noth withstanding 
such modifications, the English liturgy had been 
so slightly altered that, " Pius the Fifth did see 
so little variation in it from the Latin service 
that had been formerly used in that Kingdom 
that he would have ratified it by his authority, if 



26 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the Queen would have so received it." '^ Eliza- 
beth now forbade all preaching, teaching, and 
catechising in private houses, and refused to re- 
cognize lay or Presbyterian ordination. Minis- 
ters who could no longer accept episcopal ordina- 
tion, or subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, or 
approve the Book of Common Prayer and con- 
form to its liturgy were silenced and deprived of 
their salaries. In default of witnesses, charges 
against them were proved by their own testimony 
under oath, whereby they were made to incrim- 
inate themselves. The censorship of the press was 
made stringent, printing was restricted to Lon- 
don and to the two universities, and all printers 
had to be licensed. Furthermore, all publications, 
even pamphlets, had to receive the approval of 
the Primate or of the Bishop of London. In 
addition, the Queen estabhshed the Ecclesiastical 
Commission of forty-four members, which became 
a permanent court where aU authority virtually 
centred in the hands of the archbishops. Eng- 
lish law had not as yet defined the powers and 
limitations of the Protestant clergy. Conse- 
quently, this Commission assumed almost un- 
limited powers and cared little for its own prece- 
dents. Its very existence undid a large part of 

« John Davenport, in his Answer to the Letter of Many Minis- 
ters in Old England, p. 3. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 27 

the work of the Reformation, and the successive 
Archbishops of Canterbury, Parker, Whitgift, 
Bancroft, Abbott, and Laud, claimed greater and 
more despotic authority than any papal primate 
since the days of Augustine. The Commission 
passed upon all opinions or acts which it held to 
be contrary to the Acts of Supremacy and Uni- 
formity. It altered or amended the Statutes of 
Schools and Colleges ; it claimed the right of 
deprivation of clergy and held them at its mercy ; 
it passed from decisions upon heresy, schism, or 
nonconformity to judgment and sentence upon 
incest and similar crimes. It could fine and im- 
prison at will, and employ any measures for 
securing information or calling witnesses. The 
result was that all nonconformists and all Puri- 
tans drew closer together under trial. Another 
result was that the Bible was studied more ear- 
nestly in private, and that there was a public 
eager to read the religious books and pamphlets 
published abroad and cautiously circulated in 
England. Though the Presbyterians were con- 
fined to the nonconformist clergy and to a com- 
paratively small number among them, they were 
rising in importance, and were accorded sym- 
pathetic recognition as a section of the Puri- 
tan party. This party, as a whole, continued to 
increase its membership. The Separatists also 



28 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

increased, for, as of old, the blood of tlie martyrs 
became the seed of the church. 

The hope that times would mend when James 
ascended the throne was soon abandoned. As 
he had been trained in Scotch Presbyterianism, 
the Presbyterians believed that he would grant 
them some favor, while the Puritans looked for 
some conciliatory measures. Eight hundred Puri- 
tan ministers, a tenth of all the clergy, signed 
the '' Millenary Petition," asking that the prac- 
tices which they most abhorred, such as the sign 
of the cross in baptism, the use of the surplice, 
the giving of the ring at marriage, and the kneel- 
ing during the communion service, should be done 
away with. The petition was not Presbyterian, 
but was strictly Puiitan in tone. It asked for no 
change in the government or organization of the 
church. It did ask for a reform in the ecclesi- 
astical courts, and it demanded provision for the 
training of godly ministers. James replied to the 
petition by promising a conference of prelates 
and of Puritan ministers to consider their de- 
mands ; but at the conference it was found that 
he had summoned it only to air the theological 
knowledge upon which he so greatly prided him- 
seK. His answer to the petition was that he would 
have "one doctrine, one religion, in substance 
and in ceremony," and of the remonstrants he 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 29 

added, "I will make them conform or I will 
harry them out of the land." The harrying be- 
gan. The recently organized Separatist church at 
Gainsborough-on-Trent endured persecution for 
four years, and then emigrated with its pastor, 
John Smyth, M.A., of Christ's College, Cam- 
bridge. It found refuge in Amsterdam by the 
side of the London- Amsterdam church and its 
pastor, Francis Johnson, who had been Smyth's 
tutor in college days. The next year, after more 
of the King's harrying, the future colonists of 
Plymouth, the Separatist Church of Scrooby, an 
offshoot of the Gainsborough church, attempted 
to flee over seas to HoUand. The magistrates 
would not give them leave to go, and to emigrate 
without permission had been counted a crime 
since the reign of Richard II. Their first attempt 
to leave the country was defeated and their lead- 
ers imprisoned. During their second attempt, 
after a large number of their men had reached 
the ship with many of their household goods, and 
while their wives and children were waiting to 
embark, those on the beach were surprised and 
arrested, and their goods confiscated. Public opin- 
ion forbade sending helpless women and children 
to prison for no other offense than agreeing with 
and wishing to join their husbands and fathers. 
Consequently the magistrates let their prisoners 



30 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

go, but made no provision for them. Helpless 
and destitute, they were taken in and cared for by 
the people of the countryside, and sheltered until 
their men returned. The latter had suffered ship- 
wreck, because the Dutch captain had attempted 
to sail away when he saw the approach of the 
English officers. When the church had once more 
raised sufficient funds for the emigration, the 
magistrates gave them a contemptuous permission 
to depart, " glad to be rid of them at any price." 
So, in 1608, they also joined the English exiles 
in Amsterdam. The rank injustice and cruelty 
of their treatment, together with their patience 
and forbearance under their sufferings, drew peo- 
ple's attention to the character and worth of the 
pious " pilgrims " and Separatists whom James 
was constantly driving forth from England. 

Meanwhile, both in England and on the con- 
tinent, the Separatists held fast to the principles 
of their leaders, of which the cardinal ones were 
a church wherein membership was not by birth- 
right, but by " conversion ; " over which magis- 
trates or government should have no control ; in 
which each congregation constituted an independ- 
ent unit, coequal with all others ; and with 
which the state should have nothing more to do 
than to see that members respected the decrees 
of the church and were obedient to its discipline. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 31 

On the continent, the Separatists elaborated 
these fundamentals and developed detailed and 
systematic expression of them. Such were the 
"True Description out of the Word of God of 
the Visible Church " of the London- Amsterdam 
church, put forth in 1589, and in which Barrowe 
himself outlined his system ; the " True Confes- 
sion," issued by the same church about ten years 
later; "The Points of Difference," some four- 
teen in number, in which the London- Amsterdam 
church set forth wherein it differed from the 
English church ; and the " Seven Articles," 
signed by John Robinson and William Brewster. 
This last document the exiled Scrooby church 
sent from Leyden to the English Council of 
State in 1617, with the hope of convincing King 
James that if allowed to go to America under the 
Virginia patent, and to worship there in their 
own fashion, they would be desirable colonists 
and law-abiding subjects. The "True Confes- 
sion " ® sets forth the nature, powers, order, and 
officers of the church. It limits the sacraments 
to the members, and baptism to their children. 
It insists upon the wisdom of churches seeking 

« Its full title is "A True Confession of the Faith and 
Humble Acknowledg^ement of the Alleg-eanee which wee his 
Majestes Subjects falsely called Brownists, doo hould towards 
God and yeild his Majestic and all others that are over us in 
the Lord." 



32 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

advice from one another, and of their use of cer- 
tificates of membership so as to guard against 
the admission of strangers coming from other 
churches, and possibly of unworthy character. In 
the definition of eldership, the " True Confes- 
sion " passes out of the haze in which Barrowe's 
" True Description " left the conflicting powers 
of the eldership, and of the church. It plainly 
asserts that the elders have the power of guid- 
ance and also of control, should members attempt 
to censure them or to interfere in matters be- 
yond their knowledge. This platform also insists 
that magistrates should uphold the church which 
it defines, because it is the one true church, and 
that they should oppose all others as anti-Chris- 
tian .^^ In the " Points of Difference," stress is 
again laid upon the covenant-nature of the church, 
upon its voluntary support, upon the right of 
election of officers, and upon the abolishment of 
" Popish Canons, Courts, Classes, Customs or any 
human inventions," including the Popish liturgy, 
the Book of Common Prayer, and " all Monu- 
ments of Idolatry in garments or in other things, 
and all Temples, Chapels, etc." Many of the 
Puritans desired these same changes. Many 
favored a polity giving the local churches some 
degree of choice in the election of their officers. 
If the " Points of Difference " aimed to lay bare 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 33 

the errors of Episcopacy and of Presbyterianism 
as well as to demonstrate the superior merits of 
the new aspirant for the status of a national 
church, the " Seven Articles " ^^ aimed to mini- 
mize differences in church usage by omitting 
mention of them when possible and by emphasiz- 
ing agreement. The evident advance along the 
line of a more authoritative eldership had devel- 
oped out of the experience of the first two Eng- 
lish churches in Amsterdam. John Robinson and 
his followers had held more closely to Robert 
Browne's standard of Congregationalism, for 
Robinson maintained that the government of the 
church should be vested in its membership rather 
than in its eldership alone. In order to main- 
tain this principle in greater purity, Robinson 
withdrew his fold from their first resting-place 
in Amsterdam to Ley den. Richard Clyfton, who 
had been pastor of the church in Scrooby, re- 
mained in Amsterdam, partly because he felt too 
old to migrate again, and partly because he leaned 
to Francis Johnson's more aristocratic theories 
of church government. These divergent views 
caused trouble in the Amsterdam churches, and 
Robinson wished to be far enough away to be out 
of the vortex of doctrinal eddies. For eleven 
years his people lived a peaceful and exemplary 
church life in Leyden, and it was chiefly their 



34: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

longing to rear their children in an English home 
and under English influences that made them 
anxious to emigrate to America. As the years 
passed, Robinson sympathized more with the 
Barrowistic standards of other churches and came 
also to regard more leniently the English Estab- 
lished Church as one having true religion under 
corrupt forms and ceremonies, and accordingly 
one with which he could hold a limited fellow- 
ship. This was a step in the approachment of 
Separatist and Puritan, and Robinson was a 
most influential writer. Of necessity, his work 
was largely controversial, but he wrote from the 
standpoint of defense, and rarely departed from 
a broad and kindly spirit. In the " Seven Arti- 
cles " Robinson admits the royal supremacy in 
so far as to countenance a passive obedience. 
His teaching had the greatest influence in shap- 
ing the religious life of the first and second gen- 
eration of New Englanders. 

The Separatists who remained in England de- 
voted themselves to the discussion of particu- 
lar topics rather than to platforms of faith and 
discipline. Many of the writers were men who, 
like the pastors of two of the exiled churches, 
were at first ministers in good standing in the 
English church ; but, later, had allowed their 
Puritan tendencies to outrun the bounds of that 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 35 

party and to become convictions that the Bible 
commanded their separation from the Establish- 
ment as witnesses to the corruptions it counte- 
nanced. Poring over the Bible story, they had 
become enamored with the simplicity of the Gos- 
pel age. 

From the days of Elizabeth, the English na- 
tion became more and more a people of one book, 
and that book the Bible. As, deeply dyed with 
Calvinism, they read over and over its sacred 
pages, they became a serious, sombre, purpose- 
ful — and almost fanatic people. The faults and 
extravagances of the Puritan party and of the 
later Commonwealth do not at this time concern 
us. It is with their purposefulness, their deter- 
mination to make the church a home of vigorous 
and visible righteousness, and to preserve their 
ecclesiastical and civil liberties from the en- 
croachment of Stuart pretensions, that we have 
to do. More and more, as has been said, the 
Puritan was coming to the conviction that the 
best way to reform the church would be to sub- 
stitute some restrictive policy for her all-embra- 
cing membership, or, at least, to supplement it by 
such measures of local church discipline as should 
practically exclude the unregenerate and the im- 
moral. Again, the Church of England could be 
arraigned as a politico-ecclesiastical institution, 



36 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and in the pages of the Bible, King James's 
theory of the divine right of kings and bishops 
found no support. It was obnoxious alike to 
Separatist and Puritan, and James's Puritan sub- 
jects had the sympathy of more than three 
fourths of the squires and burgesses in the king's 
first Parliament of 1604, while the Separatists 
counted some twenty thousand converts in his 
realm. The Puritan opposition was a formidable 
one to provoke. Yet " the wisest fool in Christ- 
endom " jeered at its clergy and scolded its re- 
presentatives in Parliament for daring to warn 
him, in their reply to his boasted divine right of 
kings, that 

Your majesty would be misinformed if any man 
should deliver that the Kings of England have any 
absolute power in themselves either to alter reUgion, 
or to make any laws concerning the same, other- 
wise than as in temporal causes, by consent of Parlia- 
ment. 

It was the extravagant claims for himself and 
his bishops, coupled with his lawless overriding 
of justice and his profligate use of the national 
wealth, that undermined the king's throne and 
prepared the downfall of the House of Stuart. 
Notwithstanding the remo'nstrance of Parlia- 
ment, James's insistence upon his divine right, 
by very force of reiteration, whether his own or 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 37 

that of the clergy who favored royalty, won a 
growing recognition from a conservative people. 
For his king as the political head of the nation, 
the Puritan had all the Englishman's half-idola- 
trous reverence, until James's own acts outraged 
justice and substituted contempt. 
^ The self-restraint for which every Separatist, 
every Puritan, strove, was characteristic of the 
great reform party. They asked only for eccle- 
siastical betterment, for the reform of the ecclesi- 
astical courts, for provision for a godly ministry, 
and for the suppression of " Popish usages " 
These requests of the " Millenary Petition" were, 
after the Guy Fawkes plot, urged with all the 
intensity of a people who, as they looked abroad 
upon the feeble and warring Protestantism of 
Europe, and at home upon the attempt to revive 
Romanism, believed themselves the sole hope and 
savior of the Protestant cause. Persecution had 
created a small measure of tolerance throughout 
all nonconformist bodies. Fear of the revival 
of Catholicism, the renewed attempt to enforce 
the Three Articles, the dismissal from their par- 
ishes of three hundred Puritan ministers, and 
the hand and glove policy of the king and his 
bishops, welded together the variants in the Puri- 
tan party. The desire for personal righteous- 
ness, for morality in church and state, which had 



38 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

seized upon the masses in the nation, stood aghast 
at the profligacy of the king and his courtiers. 
Reason seemed to cry aloud for reform, prefer- 
ably for a reform that should be free from every 
trace of the old hypocrisies, but which should be 
strong within the old episcopal system which 
had endured for centuries and which still kept 
its hold upon the vast majority of the people. 
And to this idea of reform the great Puritan 
party clung, until the exactions of the Stuarts, 
their suppression of both religious and civil 
rights, forced upon it a civil war and the forma- 
tion of the Commonwealth. As a preliminary 
training of the men of the Puritan armies and 
of the Commonwealth, and for their great con- 
test, all the years of Bible study, of controversial 
writing, of individual suffering, were needed. 
These brought forth the necessary moral earnest- 
ness, the mental acumen, the enduring strength. 
These qualities, though most noticeable in the 
leaders, were well-nigh universal traits. Every 
common soldier felt himself the equal of his 
officer as a soldier of God, a defender of the 
faith, and a necessary builder of Christ's new 
kingdom upon earth. To this growing sense of 
democracy, to this sense of personal responsibil- 
ity and self-sacrifice, the teaching, the writings, 
and the sufferings of the oppressed Separatists, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 39 

as well as those of the persecuted Puritans, had 
contributed. 

When, in 1620, James I permitted the Pil- 
grims of Leyden to emigrate, they planted in 
Plymouth of New England the first American 
Congregational church and erected there the first 
American commonwealth. The influence of this 
Separatist church upon New England religious 
life belongs to another chapter. Here it is only 
necessary to repeat that its members differed 
not at all in creed, only in polity, from the Eng- 
lish established church out of which they had 
originally come. With the English Puritan they 
were one in faith, while they differed little from 
him in theories of church government, though 
much in practice. In America, the Plymouth col- 
onists at once set up the same church polity as 
in Leyden, one from which, as has been shown, 
many of the English Puritans would have bor- 
rowed the features of a converted or covenant 
membership and of local self-government, or at 
least some measure of it. Eight years were to 
elapse before the great Puritan exodus began. 
In those eight years both parties, through the 
discipline of time, were to be brought stiU nearer 
to a common standard of church life. When the 
vanguard of the Puritans reached the ]\Jassa- 
chusetts shore, the Plymouth church stood ready 



40 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

to extend the right hand of fellowship. How it 
did so, and how it impressed itself upon the 
church life in the three colonies of Massachu- 
setts, New Haven, and Connecticut, is a part of 
the story of the earliest period of colonial Con- 
gregationalism. 



CHAPTER II 

THE TEANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM 

Those who cross the sea change not their affection but their 
skies. — Horace. 

The rule of absolutism forced the transplanting 
of a democratic church. The arrogance of the 
House of Stuart compelled English Puritans to 
seek refuge in America. The exercise of the 
divine right of kings and of the divine power 
of bishops provoked the commonwealths of New 
England and the development there of the Con- 
gregational church, as later it brought the Com- 
monwealth of Cromwell, with its tolerance of 
Independent and Presbyterian. 

When the Pilgrims left England, the Puritans 
had entered upon their long contest with James 
over their ecclesiastical and also their constitu- 
tional rights. At his accession, the king had 
seemed inclined to tolerate the Catholics. Yet 
only a short time elapsed before many Romanists 
were found upon the proscribed lists. The Guy 
Fawkes plot followed. Its scope, its narrow mar- 
gin of failure, coupled with the king's previous 



42 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

leniency towards Catholics and his bitter persecu- 
tion of nonconformists, created a frenzy of fear 
among Protestants. Immediately the Puritans 
saw in every objectionable ceremonial of the 
English church some hidden purpose, some Jesu- 
itical contrivance for overthrowing Protestantism. 
And as the ritualistic clergy made their pulpits 
resound with the doctrines of the divine right of 
kings, the divine right of bishops, and of passive 
obedience, and as they thundered at the preachers 
who opposed or denied these principles, the high- 
church party came to be associated more and 
more with the unconstitutional policy of the king. 
And this was so, notwithstanding the praise- 
worthy efforts of Archbishop Abbott to modify 
the practical working of these royal notions. This 
archbishop of Canterbury was a man of great 
learning and of gentle spirit. His name stands 
second among the translators of King James's 
version, while as head of the Ecclesiastical Com- 
mission his power was great, his influence far 
reaching. So earnestly did he strive to moderate 
the king's severity toward nonconformists, to 
bring about a compromise between the two great 
church parties, and so simple was the ritual in 
his palace at Lambeth, that many people believed 
the kindly prelate was more than half a Puritan 
at heart. He even refused to license the publi- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 43 

cation of a sermon that most unduly exalted the 
king's prerogative, and he forbade the reading 
of James's proclamation permitting games and 
sports on Sunday. This proclamation was the 
famous " Book of Sports," and many Puritan 
clergymen paid dearly for refusing to read it to 
their congregations. Its issue exasperated and dis- 
couraged the reform party, and, from this time, 
the Puritans began to lose hope that any moral 
or religious betterment would be permitted among 
the people. 

In the constitutional imbroglio, James resented 
the attempt of Parliament to curb his extrava- 
gance by its method of granting him money on 
condition that he would make ecclesiastical re- 
forms and grant the redress of other grievances. 
When the king grew angry and attempted to rule 
without a Parliament, the Puritan party broad- 
ened its purpose and became the champion also 
of civil liberty. Among his offenses, James re- 
fused to restore to their pulpits three hundred 
Puritan ministers whom, in 1605, he silenced for 
not accepting the Three Articles, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that Parliament itself had refused to 
make them binding upon the clergy. The king 
also refused to define the jurisdiction of the ec- 
clesiastical courts, and to respect the limitation 
of the powers of the High Court of Commission 



44 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

when they were determined by the judges. And 
further, James positively refused to admit that 
with Parliament alone rested the power to levy 
imposts and duties. After wrangling with his 
first Parliament for seven years over these and 
similar questions, the king ruled for the next 
three without that representative body. Finding 
it necessary, in 1614, to convene his lords, 
squires, and burgesses, the king was disappointed 
to find that the new Parliament was no more 
pliable to his will than its predecessor had been, 
and he shortly dissolved it. The great leaders of 
the opposition, such as Coke, Eliot, Pym, Selden 
and Hampden, were not all Puritans, but these 
men, and others of their kind, joined with the 
reform party in demanding that the rights of 
the people should be respected and the evils 
of government redressed. James's whole reign 
was marked by quarrels with a stubborn Parlia- 
ment and by periods of absolute rule that were 
characterized by forced loans and other unlawful 
extortions. 

Upon the death of James, in 1625, the nation 
turned hopefully to the young prince, who thus 
far had pleased them in many ways. In contrast 
to the ungainly, rickety, garrulous James, Charles 
was kingly in appearance, bearing, and demeanor. 
He was reserved in speech and manner. So far, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 45 

the stubbornness whicb he had inherited from 
his father was mistaken for a strong will, and his 
attitude towards Spain, after the failure of the 
Catholic marriage which had been arranged for 
him, was regarded as indicating his strong Pro- 
testantism. It took but a short time, however, to 
reveal his stubbornness, his vanity, pique, ex- 
travagance, and insincerity. Within four years, 
he had dissolved Parliament three times, had 
sent Sir John Eliot to the Tower for boldly de- 
fending the rights of the people, had dismissed 
the Chief Justice from office for refusing to 
recognize as legal taxes laid without consent 
of Parliament, had thrown John Hampden 
into prison for refusing to pay a forced loan, and, 
finally, had signed the " Petition of Rights " ^" in 
1628, only to violate it almost as soon as the con- 
temporary bill for subsidies had been passed. 
Charles, finding he could not coerce Parliament, 
dissolved it, and entered upon his twelve years 
of absolute rule, marked by imprisonments, by 
arbitrary fines, forced loans, sales of monopolies, 
and illegal taxes, which raised the annual reve- 
nue from £500,000 to X800,000.i8 

It was during the first years of Charles's misrule 
— to be specific, in 1627 — that "some friends 
being together in Lincolnshire fell into discourse 
about New England and the planting of the Gos- 



46 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

pel there." Among them were, probably, Thomas 
Dudley (who mentions the discussion in a letter 
to the Countess of Lincoln), Atherton Hough, 
Thomas Leverett, and possibly also John Cotton 
and Roger Williams, for all these men were wont 
to assemble at Tattersall Castle, the family seat 
of Lord Lincoln. The latter was, in religious 
matters, a staunch Puritan, and in political, a 
fearless opponent of forced loans and illegal 
measures. Thomas Dudley was his steward and 
confidential adviser, and the others were his per- 
sonal friends and, in politics, his loyal followers. 
These men, afterwards prominent in New Eng- 
land, had watched with interest the fortunes of 
the Plymouth Colony, and now concluded that 
since England lay helpless in the grasp of Charles 
the time had come to prepare somewhere in the 
American wilderness a refuge and home for 
oppressed Englishmen and persecuted Puritans. 
This little group of men began at once to corre- 
spond with others in London and also in the west 
of England who were like-minded with them- 
selves. Men of the west, in and about Dorchester, 
had for some four years or more been interested 
in the New England fisheries between the Ken- 
nebec and Cape Ann. On that promontory they 
had landed some fourteen men, hoping to start a 
permanent settlement. The plan had failed, the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 47 

partnership had been dissolved, and a few of the 
settlers had removed to Salem, Massachusetts. 
The Rev. John White, the Puritan rector of 
Salem, England, saw a great opportunity. He at 
once interested some wealthy merchants to make 
Salem, in Massachusetts, the first post in a colo- 
nization scheme of great magnitude, and as leader 
of an advance party they secured John Endicott. 
From the council for New England the company 
secured a patent on March 19, 1628, for the lands 
between the Merrimac and the Charles rivers. 
On June 20, 1628, thirteen days after Charles 
had signed the " Petition of Rights " that he 
was so soon to violate, the advance guard of the 
colonists set sail for Salem, in the New World, 
arriving there early in the following Septem- 
ber. 

In America, friendly relations were soon es- 
tablished between the settlers of Salem and Plym- 
outh. On the voyage over, sickness, due to the 
unwholesome salt in which some of their provi- 
sions had been packed, broke out among the 
Salem colonists, and continuing in the settlement, 
forced Endicott to send to Plymouth for Dr. 
Samuel Fuller, deacon in the church there. He 
was skilled both in medicine and in church-lore, 
for he had also been one of the two deacons in 
the church during its Leyden days. He worked 



48 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

among the disabled at Salem, and, later, among 
the sick colonists at Boston, paving the way for 
a better understanding and closer friendship with 
the Plymouth settlers. There had been a ten- 
dency to look upon these earlier colonists as ex- 
tremists. Their enemies in derision called them 
" Brownists." They did in truth cling most firmly 
to Browne's doctrine that the civil magistrate had 
no control over the church of Christ. In their 
opinion, the function of the civil power in any 
union of church and state was limited to up- 
holding the spiritual power by approving the 
church's discipline, since that had for its object 
the moral welfare of the people. As Endicott and 
Fuller talked together of all that in their hearts 
they both desired for the church of the future, 
they realized that they agreed on many points. 
The Plymouth church had been virtually under 
the sole rule of its elder, William Brewster, 
during the greater part of its life in America, 
for its aged pastor had died before he could re- 
join his flock. Such government had tended to 
modify the early insistence upon the principle 
that the power of the church was " above that 
of its officers." This doctrine was associated 
in men's minds more with Robert Browne, who 
had originated it, than with Henry Barrowe, 
who had modified it, and it was towards Bar- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 49 

rowism that the larger body of Puritans were 
drawn. 

The Salem people, in their isolation three 
thousand miles from the home-land, felt the neces- 
sity of some form of church organization. As 
they had fled from the offensive ceremonial of the 
English Church, they determined to be free from 
cross and prayer-book, and from anything sug- 
gestive of offense. In the great matter of mem- 
bership and constitution, their new church was 
to be brought still nearer to the requirements 
and simplicity of Gospel standards. More and 
more Puritans were coming to prefer the church 
of " covenant membership "• to the birthright 
membership of the English Establishment. Many 
were urging a limited independence in the organ- 
ization, management, and discipline of members 
of local churches. Some among the Puritans had 
adopted the Presbyterian polity, while many pre- 
ferred that form of ordination. Such ordination 
had been accepted as valid for English clergy- 
men during the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign. 
It was still so recognized by all the English clergy 
for the ministers of the Keformed churches on 
the Continent, and with such, English clergy- 
men of all opinions still continued to hold very 
friendly intercourse. It was not until Laud's 
ascendency that claims for the divine right of 



50 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Episcopacy, to the exclusion of other branches 
of the Christian faith, were strenuously urged. 
Thus it happened that after many conferences, 
Endicott could write to Governor Bradford in 
May of 1629, that: — 

I acknowledge myself much bound to you for 
your kind love and care in sending Mr. Samuel 
Fuller among us, and rejoice much that I am by him 
satisfied touching your judgment of the outward form 
of God's worship. It is, as far as I can gather, no 
other than is warranted by the evidence of truth, and 
the same which I have ever professed and maintained 
ever since the Lord in mercy revealed Himself unto 
me : being far from the common report that hath been 
spread of you touching that particular. 

Endicott further expresses the wish that they 
may all "as Christian brethren be united by a 
heavenly and unfeigned love ; " that as servants 
of one Master and of one household they should 
not be strangers, but be " marked with one and 
the same mark, and sealed with one and the same 
seal, and have, for the main, one and the same 
heart guided by one and the same Spirit of 
truth," and that they should bend their hearts 
and forces to the furthering of the work for 
which they had come into the wilderness. Thus, 
Salem had decided upon the type of church 
her people wanted, while she still waited for the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 51 

ministers who were coming with the larger num- 
ber of her colonists, and whom she believed com- 
petent to guide her religious life. 

Only a few weeks after the sending of Endi- 
cott's letter to Governor Bradford, five vessels 
arrived, bringing several hundred well-equipped 
colonists. They had been sent out by the Gov- 
ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay. This 
corporation had bought out the Salem Company, 
and was backed by the most influential Puritans 
of wealth and social prominence, by men who 
had lost all hope of either religious or civil free- 
dom when Laud had been raised to the bishopric 
of London and when Charles persisted in his 
despotic government. By the elevation of Laud 
to the bishopric of London, Charles offended 
the most puritanically inclined diocese in Eng- 
land, and the whole Puritan party. In his new 
office, Laud quickly succeeded in severing com- 
munication between the Reformed churches on 
the Continent and those in England. He strictly 
prohibited the common people from using the 
annotated pocket-Bibles sent out by the Genevan 
press. He forbade the entrance into office of 
nonconformists as lecturers or chaplains. He 
put an end to feofments, so that puritanically 
inclined men of wealth could no longer control 
the livings. He excluded suspended ministers 



52 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

from teaching, and also from tlie practice of 
medicine, and even forbade their entering busi- 
ness life. He required absolute conformity to his 
own high-church standards. He insisted upon 
doing away with all Calvinistic innovations 
tending to simplicity of ritual, and upon reviv- 
ing many ecclesiastical ceremonies which had 
fallen into disuse. Hence, English Puritans 
saw in America the only hope of the future, and 
began that exodus which, during the next ten 
years, or more, annually sent two thousand emi- 
grants to the Massachusetts shore to find homes 
throughout New England. Of these, the Salem 
colonists were the first large body of Puritans to 
emigrate. Among them were three ministers, 
Endicott's former pastor Samuel Skelton, Fran- 
cis Higginson, and Francis Bright. 

When Higginson and Skelton learned of the 
friendship with Plymouth, and that Endicott 
had adopted the system of church organization 
established in the older settlement, they accepted 
it as being in accord with the principles of the 
Reformed churches on the Continent, whose pat- 
tern they had themselves resolved to follow in 
organizing the church at Salem. Not so Francis 
Bright. He could not agree with the others, 
and so withdrew to Charlestown in order not to 
embarrass the young church. Higginson and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 53 

Skelton were each in turn questioned as to their 
conception of a minister's calling. Replying that 
it was twofold : a call from within to a conviction 
that a man was chosen of God to be His minis- 
ter, and thereby endowed with proper gifts, and 
a call from without by the free choice of a 
" covenanted church " to be its pastor, they were 
accepted as satisfactory candidates for the two 
highest offices in the Salem church. Later, upon 
an appointed day of prayer and fasting, July 
20, 1629, the people by written ballot chose 
Francis Skelton to be their pastor and Thomas 
Higginson their teacher. When they had ac- 
cepted their election, " first Mr. Higginson, with 
three or four of the gravest members of the 
church, laid their hands upon Mr. Skelton, using 
prayer therewith. This being done, there was 
imposition of hands upon Mr. Higginson also." 
Upon a stiU later day of prayer and humiliation, 
August 6, elders and deacons were chosen and 
ordained. Upon this day, the two ministers 
and many among the people gave their assent 
to the Confession and Covenant which the pastor 
and teacher had revised. At the second of these 
two important meetings, Governor Bradford 
and delegates from the Plymouth church were 
present. " Coming by sea they were hindered 
by cross-winds that they could not be there at the 



54 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

beginning of the day ; but tbey came into the 
assembly afterward, and gave them the right 
hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity and 
all blessedness to such good beginnings." ^^ The 
Salem covenant in its original form was a single 
sentence : " "We covenant with the Lord and 
with one another ; and doe bynd ourselves in 
the presence of God to walk together in all his 
wayes, according as he is pleased to reveale him' 
self unto us in his Blessed word of truth." ^o 

The formation of the church of Salem by 
covenant practice " marked the beginning of the 
Congregational polity among the Puritan body ; 
their local ordination of their minister, the break 
with English Episcopacy, though, for a consider- 
able while longer, the colonists still spoke of 
themselves as members of the Church of Eng- 
land, for both the colonial and the home author- 
ities were equally anxious to avoid the stigma of 
Separatism. 

The next large body of colonists to leave Eng- 

« This fundamental principle of Congregationalism belonged 
to the Separatists and was one of their distinctive tenets. It 
was never adopted by the English Puritans as a body, nor was 
ordination by a local church. The Dorchester church had some 
form of pledge at the time of its organization. So also, pos- 
sibly, because influenced by Dutch example, did Rev. Hugh 
Peter's church in Rotterdam. But these were exceptions. — 
W. Walker, Hist, of Cong., p. 192. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 55 

land was Governor Winthrop's company, and, 
upon their arrival, the Boston church quickly 
followed the example of Salem. Next, the Dor- 
chester church, afterwards the church of Wind- 
sor, Connecticut, emigrated as a body from 
Plymouth, England, where, before embarking, 
its members seem to have taken some form of 
membership pledge, — an unusual proceeding, 
but operating to put this church in line with 
those already organized in Plymouth and Mas- 
sachusetts. The Watertown church, whence 
emigrants were to settle Wethersfield, Connecti- 
cut, also organized with a covenant similar to 
that of Salem and Boston. These four oldest 
congregations set the type for the thirty-five 
New England churches that were founded pre- 
vious to 1640, as well as for- the later ones that 
followed the standard thus early set up by Plym- 
outh, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. There 
was some variation in the form of covenant,'^ 
and to it a brief confession of faith, or creed, 
was early added. There was some variation also 

" The evolution of the Salem covenant and. creed is given 
in detail in W. Walker's Creeds and Platforms, pp. 99-122. 

The Windsor Creed of 1647, though not covering the range 
of Christian doctrine, contained in simple phrase the essentials 
of Gospel redemption from sin through repentance and faith in 
the atoning work of Christ and a life of love toward God and 
our neighbor, through the strength which comes from him. 
— W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 154. 



66 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

in the interpretation of the laying on of hands 
in ordination as to whether it was to be con- 
sidered, in cases where the candidate had pre- 
viously been ordained in England, as ordination 
or as confirmation of that previously received." 
In regard to officers, the churches at first pro- 
vided themselves with pastor, ruling elders (one 
or two, but generally only one), and deacons. 
There were exceptions among them, as at Plym- 
outh, where there was no pastor for ten years, 
and in which there had never been a teacher, 
for John Robinson had filled both offices. As 
the first generation of colonists passed away, 
partly because of lack of fit candidates, partly 
because of the kinship of the two offices of pas- 
tor and teacher, and partly because of the heavy 
expense in supporting both, the office of teacher 
was dropped. The ruling eldership also was 
gradually discontinued ; but at first the churches 
generally had, with the exception of widows, the 
full complement of officers as appointed by 
Browne and Barrowe. The usual order of wor- 
ship was (1) Prayer. (2) Psalm. (3) Scripture 
reading, followed by the pastor's preaching to 
explain and apply it. (4) Prophesying or ex- 
hortation, the elders calling for speakers, whether 

" See G. L. Walker, Hist, of First Church in Hartford, 
p. IT. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 57 

members or guests from other churches. (5) 
Questions from old or young, women excepted. 

(6) Occasional administration of the Lord's 
Supper or of Baptism, rites known as the ad- 
ministration of " the Seals of the Covenant." 

(7) Psalm. (8) Collection. (9) Dismissal with 
blessing. Such were the New England churches, 
the churches of a transplanted creed and race. 
They were Calvinistic in dogma, democratic in 
organization, and of extreme simplicity in their 
order of worship. 



CHAPTER III 

CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND 

For God and the Church ! 

With the great Puritan body in England, and 
with the great mass of the English nation, 
whatever their religious opinions, the colonists of 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New 
Haven held in common one foremost theory of 
civil government. Pausing for a brief considera- 
tion of this fundamental and far-reaching theory, 
which created so many difficulties in the infant 
commonwealths, and which confronts us again and 
again as we follow their later history, we find that 
the Pilgrim Separatist of Plymouth, the strict 
Puritan of Massachusetts, the voter in the theo- 
cratic commonwealth of New Haven, and the 
holder of the liberal franchise in Connecticut, all 
clung to the proposition that the State's first duty 
was the maintenance and support of religion. 
Thereby they meant enforced taxation for the 
support of its predominant type, conformity to 
its mode of worship, and in the last analysis 
supervision or control of the Church by the State 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 59 

or by the General Court of each colony. As a 
corollary to this proposition, the duty of the 
churches was to define the creed, to set forth the 
church polity, and to determine the bounds of mo- 
rality within the state. Two of the colonies held 
the corollary to be so important that it almost 
changed places with the proposition when Massa- 
chusetts and New Haven became rigid theocracies.'^ 
With respect to taxation in the four colonies 
the statement should be modified, inasmuch as the 
support of religion was at first voluntary in all 
four : in Plymouth until 1657, in Massachu- 
setts from 1630 to 1638, in Connecticut before 
1640 ; yet both New Haven and Connecticut 
accepted the suggestion made by the Commis- 
sioners of the United Colonies on September 5, 
1644, " that each man should be required to set 
down what he would voluntarily give for the 
support of the gospel, and that any man who re- 
fused should be rated according to his possessions 
and compelled to pay " the sum so levied. Since 
in religious affairs strict conformity was required 
by the three Puritan colonies, and since the 
liberty accorded to the few early dissenters in 

^ " The one prime, all essential, and sufficient quality of a 
theocracy . . . adopted as the form of an earthly government, 
was that the civil power should be guided in its exercise by 
religion and religious ordinances." — G. E. Ellis, Puritan Age in 
Massachusetts, p. 188. 



60 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Plymouth was not such as to modify her prevail- 
ing polity or worship, these first few years of 
voluntary assessment do not nullify the dominant 
truth of the preceding statement. 

In the intimate relation of Church and State, 
the people of these four New England colonies 
regarded the magistrates as " Nursing Fathers " 
of the Church, ^i who were to take " special note 
and care of every Church and provide and assign 
allotments of land for the maintenance of each of 
them." 22 The State, accepting the same view of 
caretaker, carried its supervision still farther and 
devised a system for the maintenance of the min- 
istry in accordance with sundry laws made to in- 
sure the people's support, respect, and obedience. 
The churches reciprocated. First of all, they 
provided their members with the approved and 
accepted essentials of religious life, and they 
further exercised a rigorous supervision over the 
moral welfare of the whole community. Secondly, 
they aided the State through the influence of their 
ministers, who, on all important occasions, were 
expected to meet with the magistrates to consult 
and advise upon affairs whether spiritual or tem^ 
poral. But the framers of governments were not 
satisfied with these measures that aimed to present 
a strongly established church, capable of extend- 
ing a fine moral, ethical, and religious influence 



4 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 61 

over the colonists, and also to enforce upon the 
wayward, the careless, or the indifferent among 
them its support and their obedience. If these 
measures provided for the ordinary welfare of 
the community and for the usual relations be- 
tween the ministers and their people, there were 
still possibilities of factional strife to guard 
against, and such warfare in that age might or 
might not confine itself within the limits of theo- 
logical controversy or within the lines of church 
organization. Consequently, the better to pre- 
serve the churches from schism or corrupting in- 
novations and the commonwealth from discord, 
the supreme control of the churches was lodged 
in the General Court of each colony. It could, 
whenever necessary to secure harmony, whether 
ecclesiastical or civil, legislate with reference to 
all or any of the churches within its jurisdiction. 
Examples of such legislation occur frequently 
in the religious history of the colonies, especially 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Such inter- 
dependence of the spiritual and temporal power 
practically amounted to a union of Church and 
State. Indeed, in Massachusetts and New Haven, 
to be a voter, a man must first be a member of 
a church of approved standing.^ In more liberal 

" " Noe man shal be admitted to the freedome of this body 
politicke, but such as are members of some of the churches 



62 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS - 

Plymouth and Connecticut, the franchise, at first, 
was made to depend only upon conduct, though 
it was early found necessary to add a property 
qualification in order to cut off undesirable 
voters.^^ In the Connecticut colony, it was ex- 
pressly enacted that church censure should not 
debar from civil privilege. When advocating this 
amount of separation between church and civil 
power, Thomas Hooker was not moved by any 
such religious principle as influenced the Separa- 
tists of Plymouth. On the contrary, it was his 
political foresight which made him urge upon the 

within the lymitts of the same." — Mass. Col. Ree. i, 87, under 
date of May 28, 1631. 

" Church members onely shall be free burg-esses and they 
onely shall chuse magistrates and officers among- themselves to 
haue the power of transacting- in all publique and ciuill affayres 
of this plantatio." — New Haven Col. Ree. i, 15; also ii, 115, 
116. 

The governments of Massachusetts and New Haven " never 
absolutely merged church and state." The franchise depended 
on church-membership, but the voter, exercising his right in 
directing the affairs of the colony, was speaking, " not as the 
church but as the civil Court of Legislation and adjudication." 
— W. Walker, History of the Congregational Churches, p. 123. 

Yet it was due to this merging and this dependence that on 
October 25, 1639, there were only sixteen free burgesses or 
voters out of one hundred and forty-four planters in the New 
Haven Colony. — See N. H. Col. Ree. i, 20. 

" Theoretically Church and State (in Connecticut) were sepa- 
rated : practically they were so interwoven that separation 
would have meant the severance of soul and body." — C. M. 
Andrews, Three River Towns of Conn. p. 22. \ 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 63 

colonists a more representative government " than 
would be obtainable from a franchise based upon 
church-membership where, as in the colonial 
churches, admission to such membership was con- 
ditioned upon exacting tests. The great Connect- 
icut leader was far in advance of the statesmen 
of his time, for they held that the religion of a 
prince or government must be the religion of the 
people ; that every subject must be by birthright 
a member of the national church, to leave which 
was both heretical and disloyal and should be 
punished by political and civil disabilities. This 
union of Church and State was the theory of the 
age, — a principle of statecraft throughout all 
of Europe as well as in England. Naturally it 
emigrated to New England to be a foundation of 
civil government and a fortress for that type 
of nonconformity which the colonists chose to 
transplant and make predominant. The type, 

^ To John Cotton's " democracy, I do not conceive that ever 
God did ordain, as a fit government for church or common- 
wealth," and to Gov. Winthrop's objections to committing' mat- 
ters to the judgment of the body of the people because " safety 
lies in the councils of the best part which is always the least, 
and of the best part, the wiser is always the lesser," Hooker 
replied that " in all matters which concern the common good, 
a general council, chosen by all, to transact the business which 
concerns all, I conceive under favor, most suitable to rule and 
most safe for the relief of the whole." — Hutchinson, Hist, of 
Mass, i, App. iii. 



64 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

as we have seen, was Congregationalism, and the 
Congregational church became the established 
church in each of the four colonies. 

This theory of Church and State was the cause 
at bottom of all the early theological dissensions 
which disturbed the peace and threatened the 
colony of Massachusetts. Moreover, their settle- 
ment offers the most striking contrast between 
the fundamental theory of Congregationalism 
and the theory of a union between Church and 
State. With the power of supervision over the 
Church lodged in the General Court, whatever 
the theory of Congregationalism as to the inde- 
pendence of the individual churches, in practice 
the civil authority disciplined them and their 
members, and early invaded ecclesiastical terri- 
tory. In Salem, Endicott took it upon himself to 
expel Ralph Smith for holding extreme Separat- 
ist principles, and shipped the Browns back to 
England for persisting in the use of the Book 
of Common Prayer. He considered both parties 
equally dangerous to the welfare of the com- 
munity, because, according to the new standard 
of church-life, both were censurable. Endicott 
held that to tolerate any measure of diversity in 
religious practices was to cultivate the ferment 
of civil disorder. Considering the bitterness, nar- 
rowness, intensity, and also the irritating convic- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 65 

tion that every one else was heretical and anti- 
Christian, with which men of that age clung to 
their rehgious differences, Endicott had some 
reason for holding this opinion. The Boston 
authorities believed in no less drastic measures 
to maintain the civil peace and consequent good 
name of the colony. John Davenport of New 
Haven voiced the Massachusetts sentiment as weU 
as his own in: "Civil government is for the com- 
mon welfare of aU, as well in the Church as with- 
out ; which will then be most certainly effected, 
when Public Trust and Power of these matters 
is committed to such men as are most approved 
according to God; and these are Church-mem- 
bers." ^^ Consequently, the Massachusetts law 
of 1631 25 forbade any but church members to 
become freemen of the colony, and to these only 
was intrusted any share in its government. A 
similar law was later formulated for the New 
Haven colony. John Cotton echoed the further 
sentiment of a New England community when, 
writing of the relations between the churches 
and the magistrates, he defined the church as 
" subject to the Magistrate in the matters con- 
cerning the civil peace, of which there are four 
sorts: " (1) with reference to men's goods, lives, 
liberty, and lands ; (2) with establishment of 
religion in doctrine, worship, and government 



66 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

according to the Word of God, as also the re- 
formation of corruption in any of these ; (3) with 
certain public spiritual administrations which 
may help forward the public good, as fasts and 
synods ; (4) and finally the church must be sub- 
ject to the magistrates in patient suffering of 
unjust persecution, since for her to take up the 
sword in her own defense would only increase 
the disturbance of the public peace.^^ As a re- 
sult of such public sentiment, churches were not 
to be organized without the approval of the mag- 
istrates, nor were any " persons being members 
of any church . . . gathered without the appro- 
bation of the magistrates and the greater part of 
said churches " (churches of the colony) to be 
admitted to the freedom of the commonwealth.^^ 
This law, or its equivalent, with reference to 
church organization was found upon the statute 
books of aU four colonies. 

In a pioneer community and a primitive com- 
monwealth, developing slowly in accord with the 
new democratic principles underlying both its 
church and secular life, the " maintenance of the 
peace and welfare of the churches," ^8 which was 
intrusted to the care of the General Court, was 
frequently equivalent to maintaining the civil 
peace and prosperity of the colony. Endicott's 
deportation of the Browns and the report of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 67 

exclusiveness and exacting tests of membership 
in the colonial churches had early led the mem- 
bers of the Massachusetts Bay Company, resi- 
dent in England, to fear that the emigrants had 
departed from their original intent and purpose. 
And the colonists began to feel that they were 
in danger of f alHng under the displeasure of their 
king and of their Puritan friends at home. Con- 
sequently, there entered into the settling of all 
later religious differences in the colony the de- 
termination to avoid appeals to the home country, 
and also to avoid any report of disturbance or 
dissatisfaction that might be prejudicial to her 
independence, general policy, or commercial pros- 
perity. The recognition of such danger made 
many persons satisfied to submit to government 
by an exclusive class, comprising in Massachu- 
setts one tenth of the people and in the New 
Haven colony one ninth. These alone had any 
voice in making the laws. In submitting to their 
dictation, the large majority of the people had 
to submit to a " government that left no inci- 
dent, circumstance, or experience of the life of 
an individual, personal, domestic, social, or civil, 
stiU less anything that concerned religion, free 
from the direct or indirect interposition of pub- 
lic authority." ^9 Such inquisitorial supervision 
was due to the close alliance of Church and State 



68 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

within the narrow limits of a theocracy. In 
more liberal Plymouth and Connecticut, the 
" watch and ward " over one's fellows, which 
the early colonial church insisted upon, was ex- 
tended only over church members, and even over 
them was less rigorous, less intrusive. 

Something of the development of the great 
authority of the State over the churches and of 
its attitude and theirs towards synods may be 
gleaned from the earliest pages of Massachusetts 
ecclesiastical history. The starting-point of pre- 
cedent for the elders of the church to be regarded 
as advisors only and the General Court as authori- 
tative seems to have been in a matter of taxation, 
when, in February, 1632, the General Court 
assessed the church in Watertown. The elders 
advised resistance ; the Court compelled payment. 
In the following July, the Boston church inquired 
of the churches of Plymouth, Salem, Dorchester, 
and Watertown, whether a ruling elder could at 
the same time hold office as a civil magistrate. 
A correspondence ensued and the answer returned 
was that he could not. Thereupon, Mr. NoweU 
resigned his eldership in the Boston church. ^^ 
Winthrop mentions eight ^ important occasions 

« (1) To adjust a difference between Governor Winthrop and 
Deputy Dudley in 1632 ; (2) about building a fort at Nantas- 
ket, February, 1632 ; (3) in regard to the settlement of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 69 

between 1632 and 1635 when the elders, which 
term included pastors, teachers, and ruling elders, 
were summoned by the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts to give advice upon temporal affairs. In 
March of 1635-36 the Court " entreated them 
(the elders) together with the brethren of every 
church within the jurisdiction, to consult and 
advise of one uniforme order of discipline in the 
churches agreable to Scriptures, and then to 
consider how far the magistrates are bound to 
interpose for the preservation of that uniformity 
and peace of the churches." ^^ The desire of the 
Court grew in part out of the influx of new colo- 
nists, who did not like the strict church disci- 
pline, and in part out of the tangle of Church and 
State during the Roger Williams controversy. 
The Court had disciplined Williams as one, who, 
having no rights in the corporation, had no ground 
for complaint at the hostile reception of his teach- 
ings. These the authorities regarded as harmful 
to their government and dangerous to religion. 
His too warm adherents in the Salem church 

Rev. John Cotton, September, 1633 ; (4) in consultation con- 
cerning Roger Williams's denial of the patent, January, 1634 ; 
(5) concerning rights of trade at Kennebec, July, 1634 ; (6) in 
regard to the fort on Castle Island, August, 1634 ; (7) concern- 
ing the rumor in 1635 of the coming of a Governor-General ; 
and (8) in the case of Mr. Nowell. — Winthrop, i, pp. 89, 99, 
112, 122, 136-137, 159-181. 



70 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

were, however, rightful members of the commu- 
nity, and they had been punished for upholding 
one whom the General Court, advised by the 
elders of the churches, had seen fit to censure. 
Punished thus, ostensibly, for contempt of the 
magistrates by the refusal to them of the land 
they claimed as theirs on Marblehead Neck, and 
feeling that the independence of their church life 
and their rightful choice in the selection of their 
pastor had really been infringed, the Salem 
church sent letters to the elders of all the other 
churches of the Bay, asking that the magistrates 
and deputies be admonished for their decision as 
a " heinous sin." The Court came out victorious, 
by refusing at its next general session to seat the 
Salem deputies " until they should give satisfac- 
tion by letter " for holding dangerous opinions 
and for writing " letters of defamation," and by 
proceeding to banish Eoger Williams. Before the 
session of the Court, the elders of the Massachu- 
setts churches, jointly and individually, labored 
with the Salem people and brought the majority 
to a conviction of their error in supporting Koger 
Williams." 

The platform of church discipline which the 
Court advised in 1635-36 was not forthcoming, 

" Roger Williams was the real author of the letters which 
the Salem church was required to disclaim. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 71 

and the matter was allowed to rest." In 1637, 
with the consent of the General Court, a synod 
of elders and lay delegates from all the New 
England churches was called to harmonize the 
discordant factions created by the heated Anti- 
nomian controversy. During the synod, the mag- 
istrates were present all the time as hearers, and 
even as speakers, but not as members. The dan- 
gerous schism was ended more by the Court's 
banishment of Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchin- 
son, together with their more prominent followers, 
than by the work of the synod. However, Gov- 
ernor Winthrop was so delighted with the con- 
ferences of the synod that, in his enthusiasm, he 
suggested that it would be fit " to have the like 
meeting once a year, or at least the next year, to 
settle what yet remained to be agreed, or if but 
to nourish love." ^^ But his suggestion was voted 
down, for the Synod of 1637 was considered by 
some to be " a perilous deflection from the theory 
of Congregationalism." ^ Even the fortnightly 
meeting of ministers who resided near each other, 
and which it had become a custom to call for 
friendly conference, was looked at askance by 
those ^ who feared in it the germ of some authori- 

^ Upon a further suggestion from the General Court, John 
Cotton prepared a catechism entitled Milk for Babes. 

^ Governor Winthrop replied to Dr. Skelton's objections 
that " no church or person could have authority over another 



72 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

tative body that should come to exercise control 
over the individual churches. When this custom 
was endorsed and permitted in the "Body of 
Liberties," in 1641, the assurance that these 
meetings " were only by way of Brotherly con- 
ference and consultation " was felt to be neces- 
sary to appease the opposition. When, two and 
four years later, Anabaptist converts and a flood 
of Presbyterian literature called for measures of 
repression, and the Court summoned councils to 
consult upon a course of action, it was most care- 
ful in each case to reassert the doctrine of the 
complete independence of the individual church. 
Synods, from the purely Congregational stand- 
point, were to be called only upon the initiative 
of the churches, and were authoritative bodies, 
composed of both ministerial and lay delegates 
from such churches, and their duty was to confer 
and advise upon matters of general interest or 
upon special problems. In cases where their de- 
cisions were unheeded, they could enforce their 
displeasure at the contumacious church only by 
cutting it off from fellowship. Consequently, 
though there was some opposition to the Court's 
calling of synods and a resultant general restless- 
ness, there was none when the Court confined its 

church." — See H. M. Dexter, Ecclesiastical Councils of New 
England, p. 31 ; Winthrop, i. p. 139. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 73 

supervision and. commands to individually schis- 
matic churches or to unruly members. The time 
had not yet come for the recognition of what this 
double system of church government — govern- 
ment by its members, supervision by the Court 
— foreboded. The colonists did not see that 
within it was the embryo of an authoritative body 
exercising some of the powers of the Presbyterian 
General Assembly. The supervising body might 
be composed of laymen acting in their capacity as 
members of the General Court, but the powers 
they exercised were none the less akin to the 
very ones that Congregationalism had declared 
to be heretical and anti-Christian. Moreover, the 
tendency was toward an increase of this authori- 
tative power every time it was exercised and each 
time that the colonists submitted to its dictation. 
Of the two colonies founded after Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut and New Haven, the latter 
preserved the complete independence of her 
original church until the admission of the shore 
towns " to her jurisdiction, when she instituted 
that friendly oversight of the churches which 
had begun to prevail elsewhere. Thereafter her 
General Court kept a rigorous oversight over the 
purity of her churches and the conduct of their 

« Guilford, Branford, Milford, Stamford, on the mainland, 
and Soutbold, on Long Island. 



74 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

members. The General Court of Connecticut 
early compelled a recognition of its authority "' 
over the religious life of the people and its right 
of special legislation.^ For example, in 1643, the 
Court demanded of the Wethersfield church a list 
of the grievances which disturbed it. In the next 
year, when Matthew Allyn petitioned for an order 
to the Hartford church, commanding the reconsid- 

" The General Court was head of the churches. " It was 
more than Pope, or Pope and College of Cardinals, for it ex- 
ercised all authority, civil and ecclesiastical. In matters of 
discipline, faith, and practice there was no appeal from its de- 
cisions. Except the right to be protected in their orthodoxy 
the churches had no privileges which the Court did not confer, 
or could not take away." — Bronson's Early GovH. in Conn. p. 
347, in N. H. Hist. Soc. Papers, vol. iii. 

^ On August 18, 1658, the court refused, upon complaint 
of the Wethersfield church, to remove Mr. Russell. In March, 
1661, after duly considering the matter, the court allowed 
Mr. Stow to sever his connection with the church of Middle- 
town. It concerned itself with the strife in the Windsor church 
over an assistant pastor from 1667 to 1680. It allowed the 
settlement of Woodbury in 1672 because of dissatisfaction with 
the Stratford church. It permitted Stratford to divide in 1669. 
These are but a few instances both of the authority of the 
General Court over individual churches and of that discord 
which, finding its strongest expression in the troubles of the 
Hartford church, not only rent the churches of Connecticut 
from 1650 to 1670, but " insinuated itself into all the affairs 
of the society, towns, and the whole community." Another 
illustration of the court's oversight of the purity of religion 
was its investigation in 1670 into the " soundness of the minis- 
ter at Rye." For these and hosts of similar examples see index 
Conn. Col. Bee. vols, i, ii, iii, and iv. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 75 

eration of its sentence of excommunication against 
him, the Court " adjudged his plea an accusation 
upon the church" which he was bound to prove. 
These incidents from early colonial history in 
some measure illustrate the practical working of 
the theory of Church and State. The conviction 
that the State should support one form of reli- 
gion, and only one, was ever present to the colonial 
mind. If confirmation of its worth were needed, 
one had only to glance at the turmoil of the 
Ehode Island colony experimenting with religious 
liberty and a complete separation of Church and 
State. Like all pioneers and reformers, she had 
gathered elements hard to control, and would-be 
citizens neither peaceable nor reasonable in their 
interpretation of the new range of freedom. 
Watching Rhode Island, the Congregational men 
of New England hugged more tightly the con- 
viction that their method was best, and that any 
variation from it would work havoc. It was this 
theory and this conviction, ever present in their 
minds, that underlay all ecclesiastical laws, all 
special legislation with reference to churches, to 
their members, or to public fasts and thanksgiv- 
ings. This deep-rooted conviction created hatred 
toward and fear of all schismatical doctrines, 
enmity toward all dissenting sects, and opposition 
to any tolerance of them. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF- 
WAY COVENANT 

It is always right that a man should be able to render a 
reason for the faith that is within him. — Sydj^ey Smith. 

In each of the New England colonies under con- 
sideration, the settlers organized their church 
system and established its relation to the State, 
expecting that the strong arm of the temporal 
power would insure stability and harmony in 
both religious and civil life. As we know, they 
were speedily doomed to disappointment. As we 
have seen, they failed to estimate the influences 
of the new land, where freedom from the re- 
straint of an older civilization bred new ideas 
and estimates of the liberty that should be ac- 
corded men. Within the first decade Massachu- 
setts had great difficulty in impressing religious 
uniformity upon her rapidly increasing and heter- 
ogeneous population. She found coercion diffi- 
cult, costly, dangerous to her peace, and to her 
reputation when the oppressed found favorable 
ears in England to listen to their woes. Ecclesi- 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 77 

astical differences of less magnitude, contempo- 
rary in time and foreshadowing discontent and 
opposition to the established order of Church 
and State, were settled in more quiet ways. 
John Davenport, after witnessing the Antino- 
mian controversy, declined the pressing hospi- 
tality of Massachusetts, and led his New Haven 
company far enough afield to avoid theological 
entanglements or disputed points of church 
polity. Unimpeded, they would make their in- 
tended experiment in statecraft and build their 
strictly scriptural republic. Still earlier Thomas 
Hooker, Samuel Stone, and John Warham led 
the Connecticut colonists into the wilderness be- 
cause they foresaw contention, strife, and evil days 
before them if they were to be forced to conform 
to the strict policy of Massachusetts." They pre- 
ferred, unhindered, to plant and water the young 
vine of a more democratic commonwealth. And 
even as Massachusetts met with large troubles of 

^ Among' the causes assigned for the removal of the Con- 
necticut colonists were the discontent at Watertown over the 
high-handed silencing by the Boston authorities of Pastor 
Phillips and Teacher Brown for daring to assert that the 
" churches of Rome were true churches ; " the early attempt 
of the authorities to impose a general tax ; the continued op- 
position to Ludlow ; their desire to oppose the Dutch seizure 
of the fertile valley of the Connecticut ; their want of space 
in the Bay Colony ; and the " strong bent of their spirits to 
remove thither," i. e. to Connecticut. 



78 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

her own, so smaller ones beset these other colo- 
nies in their endeavor to preserve uniformity of 
religious faith and practice. Until 1656, outside 
of Massachusetts, sectarianism barely lifted its 
head. Eeligious contumacy was due to varying 
opinions as to what should be the rule of the 
churches and the privileges of their members. 
As the churches held theoretically that each was 
a complete, independent, and self-governing unit, 
their practice and teaching concerning their 
powers and duties began to show considerable 
variation. Such variation was unsatisfactory, and 
so decidedly so that the leaders of opinion in the 
four colonies early began to feel the need of some 
common platform, some authoritative standard 
of church government, such as was agreed upon 
later in the Cambridge Platform of 1648 and 
in the Half- Way Covenant, a still later exposi- 
tion or modification of certain points in the Plat- 
form. 

The need for the Platform arose, also, from 
two other causes : one purely colonial, and the 
other Anglo-colonial. The first was, since every- 
body had to attend public worship, the presence 
in the congregations of outsiders as distinct from 
church members. These outsiders demanded 
broader terms of admission to holy privileges 
and comforts. The second cause, Anglo-colonial 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 79 

in nature, arose from the inter-communion of 
colonial and English Puritan churches and from 
the strength of the politico-ecclesiastical parties 
in England. Whatever the outcome there, the 
consequences to colonial life of the rapidly ap- 
proaching climax in England, when, as we now 
know, King was to give way to Commonwealth 
and Presbyterianism find itseK subordinate to 
Independency, would be tremendous. 

In the first twenty years of colonial life, great 
changes had come over New England. Many 
men of honest and Christian character — " sober 
persons who professed themselves desirous of 
renewing their baptismal covenant, and submit 
unto church discipline, but who were unable to 
come up to that experimental account of their 
own regeneration which would sufficiently em- 
bolden their access to the other sacrament " 
(communion) ^ — felt that the early church 
regulations, possible only in small communities 
where each man knew his fellow, had been out- 
grown, and that their retention favored the 
growth of hypocrisy. The exacting oversight of 
the churches in their " watch and ward " over 
their members was unwelcome, and would not be 
submitted to by many strangers who were flock- 
ing into the colonies. The " experimental ac- 
count " of religion demanded, as of old, a public 



80 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

declaration or confession of the manner in which 
conviction of sinfulness had come to each one ; 
of the desire to put evil aside and to live in 
accordance with God's commands as expressed 
in Scripture and through the church to which the 
repentant one promised obedience. This public 
confession was a fundamental of Congregation- 
alism. Other religious bodies have copied it; 
but at the birth of Congregationalism, and for 
centuries afterwards, the bulk of European 
churches, like the Protestant Episcopal Church 
to-day, regarded " Christian piety more as a 
habit of life, formed under the training of child- 
hood, and less as a marked spiritual change in 
experience." ^^ 

It followed that while many of the newcomers 
in the colonies were indifferent to religion, by 
far the larger number were not, and thought 
that, as they had been members of the English 
Established Church, they ought to be admitted 
into full membership in the churches of Eng- 
land's colonies. They felt, moreover, that the 
religious training of their children was being 
neglected because the New England churches 
ignored the child whose parents would not, or 
could not, submit to their terms of membership. 
Still more strongly did these people feel neglected 
and dissatisfied when, as the years went by, more 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 81 

and more of them were emigrants who had been 
acceptable members of the Puritan churches in 
England. They continued to be refused religious 
privileges because New England Congregation- 
alism doubted the scriptural validity of letters 
of dismissal from churches where the discipline 
and church order varied from its own. Within 
the membership of the New England churches 
themselves, there was great uncertainty concern- 
ing several church privileges, as, for instance, 
how far infant baptism carried with it partici- 
pation in church sacraments, and whether adults, 
baptized in infancy, who had failed to unite with 
the church by signing the Covenant, could have 
their children baptized into the church. Con- 
siderations of church-membership and baptism, 
for which the Cambridge Synod of 1648 was 
summoned, were destined, because of political 
events in England, to be thrust aside and to 
wait another eight years for their solution in 
that conference which framed the Half- Way 
Covenant as supplementary to the Cambridge 
Platform of faith and discipline. 

What has been termed the Anglo-colonial 
cause for summoning the Cambridge Synod finds 
explanation in the frequent questions and de- 
mands which English Independency put to the 
New England churches concerning church usage 



82 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and discipline, and in the intense interest with 
which New England waited the outcome of the 
constitutional struggle in England between 
King and Parliament. 

When the great controversy broke out in Eng- 
land between Presbyterians and Independents, 
the fortunes of Massachusetts (who felt every 
wave of the struggle) and of New England were 
in the balance. Presbyterians in England pro- 
claimed the doctrine of church unity, and of 
coercion if necessary, to procure it ; the Inde- 
pendents, the doctrine of toleration. Puritans, 
inclining to Presbyterianism, were disturbed over 
reports from the colonies, and letters of inquiry 
were sent and answers returned explaining that, 
while the internal polity of the New England 
churches was not far removed from Presbyteri- 
anism, they differed widely from the Presby- 
terian standard as to a national church and as 
to the power of synods over churches, and that 
they also held to a much larger liberty in the 
right of each church to appoint its officers and 
control its own internal affairs. At the opening 
of the Long Parliament (1640-1644), many 
emigrants had returned to England from the 
colonies, and, under the leadership of the influ- 
ential Hugh Peters, had given such an impetus 
to English thought that the Independent party 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 83 

rose to political importance and made popular 
the " New England Way." *" The success of the 
Independents brought relief to Massachusetts, 
yet it was tinctured with apprehension lest 
" toleration " should be imposed upon her. The 
signing of the " League and Covenant " with 
England in 1643 by Scotland, the oath of the 
Commons to support it, and the pledge "to 
bring the churches of God in the three King- 
doms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity 
in religion, confession of faith, form of church 
government and catechizing " (including punish- 
ment of malignants and opponents of reforma- 
tion in Church and State), carried menace to 
the colonies and to Massachusetts in particular. 
The supremacy of Scotch or English Noncon- 
formity meant a severity toward any variation 

« The New England Way discarded the liturgy; refused 
to accept the sacrament or join in prayer after such an " anti- 
Christian form ; " limited communion to church members 
approved by New England standards, or coming- with creden- 
tials from churches similarly approved ; limited the ministerial 
office, outside the pastor's own chiirch, to prayer and confer- 
ence, denying all authority ; and assumed as the right of each 
church the power of elections, admissions, dismissals, censures, 
and excommunications. The result, in that day of intense 
championship of religious polity and custom, was to create 
disturbance and discord among the English Independent 
churches. The correspondence between the divines of New 
England and old England was in part to avoid the " breaking 
up of churches." 



84 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

from its Presbyterianism as great as Laud had 
exercised." 

In 1643 Parliament convened one hundred 
and fifty members ^ in the Westminster Assem- 
bly to plan the reform of the Church of Eng- 
land. Their business was to formulate a Con- 

« J. R. Green, Short Hist, of the English People, 534-538. The 
great popular signing of the Covenant in Scotland was in 1638. 

^ The original intention, in 1642, in regard to the composi- 
tion of the Westminster Assembly was to have noted divines 
from abroad. It was proposed to invite Rev. John Cotton, 
Thomas Hooker, and John Davenport from New England. 
Rev. Thomas Hooker thought the subject was not one of 
sufficient ecclesiastical importance for so long and difficult a 
journey, while the Rev. John Davenport could not be spared 
because of the absence of other church officers from New 
Haven. — H. M. Dexter, Congr. as seen, etc., p, 653. 

Congregationalists or Independents in the sittings of the 
Assembly pleaded for liberty of conscience to all sects, " pro- 
vided that they did not trouble the public peace." (Later, 
Congregationalists differentiated themselves from the Inde- 
pendents by adding to the principle of the independence of 
the local church the principle of the local sisterhood of the 
churches.) In the Assembly, averaging sixty or eighty mem- 
bers, Congregationalism was represented by but five influen- 
tial divines and a few of lesser importance. There were also 
among the members some thirty laymen. The Assembly 
held eleven hundred and sixty-three sittings, continuing for 
a period of five years and six months. During these years the 
Civil War was fought ; the King executed ; the Commonwealth 
established with its modified state-church, Presbyterian in 
character. Intolerance was held in check by the power of 
Cromwell and of the army, for the Independents had made 
early and successful efforts to win the soldiery to their stan- 
dard. — Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 727-820. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 85 

fession which should dictate to all Englishmen 
what they should believe and how express it, 
and should also define a Church, which, preserv- 
ing the inherent English idea of its relation to 
the State, should bear a close likeness to the 
Reformed churches of the Continent and yet 
approach as nearly as possible both to the then 
Church of Scotland and to the English Church 
of the time of Elizabeth. The work of this as- 
sembly, known as the Westminster Confession, 
demonstrated to the New England colonists the 
weakness of their church system and the need 
among them of religious unity .'^ 

Many among the colonists doubted the advisa- 
bility of a church platform, considering it per- 
missible as a declaration of faith, but of doubtful 
value if its articles were to be authoritative as a 
binding rule of faith and practice without " add- 
ing, altering, or omitting." Men of this mind 
waited for controversial writings,^ to clear up 

« W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 136, note 2. 

^ The New England Way defended its changes from Eng- 
lish custom under three heads : (1) That things, inexpedient 
but not utterly unlawful in England, became under changed 
conditions sinful in New England. (2) Things tolerated in 
England, because unremovable, were shameful in the new land 
where they were removable. (3) Many things, upon mature 
deliberation and tried by Scripture, were found to be sinful. 
But: " We profess unfeignedly we separate from the corrup- 
tions, which we conceive to be left in your Churches, and 



86 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

misconception and misrepresentation in England, 
but they waited in vain. Moreover, the Puritan 
Board of Commissioners for Plantations of 1643 
threatened as close an oversight and as rigid 
control of colonial affairs from a Presbyterian 
Parliament as had been feared from the King. 

from sueli Ordinances administered therein as we feare are 
not of God but of men ; and for yourselves, we are so farre 
from separating- as visible Christians as that you are under 
God in our hearts (if the Lord would suffer it) to live and 
die together ; and we look at sundrie of you as men of that 
eminent growth in Christianitie, that if there be any visible 
Christians under heaven, amongst you are the men, which for 
these many years have been written in your forehead ( ' Holi- 
ness to the Lord ' ) : and this is not to the disparagement of our- 
selves or our practice, for we believe that the Church moves 
on from age to age, its defects giving way to increasing purity 
from reformation to reformation." — J. Davenport, The Epistle 
Heturned, or the Answer to the Letter of Many Ministers. 

A number of treatises upon church government and usage 
were printed in the memorable year 1643, several of which 
had previously circulated in manuscript. In 1637 was re- 
ceived the Letter of Many Ministers in Old England, request- 
ing the Judgment of their Reverend Brethren in New England 
and concerning Nine Positions. It was answered by John 
Davenport in 1639. A Reply and Answer was also a part of 
this correspondence, which was first published in 1643, as 
was also Richard Mather's Church Government and Church Cov- 
enant Discussed, the latter being a reply to Two and Thirty 
Questions sent from England. By these, together with J. 
Cotton's Keyes and other writings, and by Thomas Hooker's 
great work Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline (approved 
by the Synod of 1643), every aspect of church polity and 
usage was covered. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 87 

Furthermore, a Presbyterian cabal in Plymouth 
and Massachusetts, 1644-1646, gathered to it 
the discontent of large numbers of unfranchised 
residents within the latter colony, and under 
threat of an appeal to Parliament boldly asked 
for the ballot and for church privileges. In view 
of these developments, nearly all the colonial 
churches, though with some hesitation, united 
in the Synod of Cambridge, which was origi- 
nally called for the year 1646. 

In the calling of the synod Massachusetts 
took the lead. Several years before, in 1643, 
the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and New Haven had united in the 
New England Confederacy, or " Confederacy of 
the United Colonies," for mutual advantage in re- 
sisting the encroachments of the Dutch, French, 
and Indians, and for " preserving and propagat- 
ing the truth and liberties of the gospel." In 
the confederacy, Massachusetts and Connecticut 
soon became the leaders. Considering how much 
more strongly the former felt the pulsations of 
English political life, and how active were the 
Massachusetts divines as expositors of the " New 
England way of the churches," the Bay Colony 
naturally took the initiative in calling the Cam- 
bridge Synod. But mindful of the opposition 
to her previous autocratic summons, her General 



88 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Court framed its call as a " desire " that minis- 
terial, together with lay delegates, from all the 
churches of New England should meet at Cam- 
bridge. There, representing the churches, and 
in accordance with the earliest teachings of Con- 
gregationalism, they were to meet in synod " for 
sisterly advice and counsel." They were to for- 
mulate the practice of the churches in regard 
to baptism and adult privileges, and to do so 
" for the confirming of the weak among ourselves 
and the stopping of the mouths of our adversa- 
ries abroad." During the two years of unavoid- 
able delay before the synod met in final session, 
these topics, which were expected to be foremost 
in the conference, were constantly in the public 
mind. Through this wide discussion, the long 
delay brought much good. It brought also mis- 
fortune in the death of Thomas Hooker in 1647, 
and by it loss of one of the great lights and 
most liberal minds in the proposed conference. 
Nearly all the colonial churches ° were repre- 

« Hingham elitirch preferred the Presbyterian way. Con- 
cord was absent, lacking- a fit representative. Boston and Sa- 
lem at first refused to attend, questioning- the General Court's 
right to summon a synod and fearing lest such a summons 
should involve the obedience of all the represented churches to 
the decisions of the conference. The modification of the sum- 
mons to the " desire " of the court, and the entreaty of their 
leaders, finally overcame the opposition in these churches. In 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 89 

sented in the synod. When, during its session, 
news was received that Cromwell was supreme 
in England, its members turned from the dis- 
cussion of baptism, and church-membership to a 
consideration of what should be the constitution 
of the churches. The supremacy of Cromwell 
and of the Independents who filled his armies 
cleared the political background. AU danger of 
enforced Presbyterianism was over. The strength 
of the Presbyterian malcontents, who had sought 
to bring Massachusetts and New England into 
disrepute in England, was broken. Since the 
colonists were free to order their religious life as 
they pleased, the Cambridge Synod turned aside 
from its purposed task to formulate a larger 
platform of faith and polity. 

When the Cambridge Synod adjourned, the 
orthodoxy of the New England churches could 
not be impugned. In aU matters of faith " for 
the substance thereof " they accepted the West- 
fact, delegates to the Court, representing at least thirty or 
forty churches, had hesitated to accept the original summons 
of the Court when reported as a bill for calling the synod. 
Although the Court " made no question of their lawful power 
by the word of God to assemble the churches, or their mes- 
sengers upon occasion of counsell, or anything which may 
concern the practice of the churches," it decided to modify 
the phrasing of the order. — H. M. Dexter, Congr. as seen, 
p. 436. Magnolia, ii, 209. Mass. Col. Bee. ii, 154-156, also 
iii, 70-73. 



90 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

minster Confession of Faith, but from its mea- 
sures of government and discipline they differed.*^ 
This Cambridge Platform was more important 
as recognizing the independence of the churches 
and the authority of custom among them than as 
formulating a creed. It governed the New Eng- 
land churches for sixty years, or until Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut Congregationalism came 
to the parting of the way, whence one was to 
develop its associated system of church govern- 
ment, and the other its consociated system as set 
forth in the Saybrook Platform, formulated at 
Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1708. Meanwhile, the 
Cambridge Platform * gave all the New England 

" " This Synod having- perused -with much gladness of heart 
the confession of faith published by the late reverend assembly 
in England, do judge it to be very holy, orthodox and judicious, 
in all matters of faith, and do hereby freely and fully consent 
thereto for the substance thereof. Only in those things which 
have respect to church-government and discipline, we refer 
ourselves to the Platform of Church-discipline, agreed upon 
by this present assembly." — Preface to the Cambridge Plat- 
form, quoted in W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 195. 

^ In many parts the wording of the Platform is almost iden- 
tical with passages from the foremost ecclesiastical treatises 
of the period, and, naturally, since John Cotton, Richard 
Mather, and Ralph Partridge were each requested to draft a 
"Scriptural Model of Church Government." The Platform 
conformed most closely to that of Richard Mather. The draft 
by Ralph Partridge of Plymouth still exists. Obviously, the 
Separatist clergyman did not emphasize so strongly the rule 
of the eldership which New England church life in general had 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 91 

churches a standard by which to regulate their 
practice and to resist change." 

A study of the Platform yields the following 
brief summary of its cardinal points : — 

(a) The Congregational church is not "Na- 
tional, Provincial or Classical," * but is a church 
of a covenanted brotherhood, wherein each mem- 
ber makes public acknowledgment of spiritual 
regeneration and declares his purpose to submit 
himself to the ordinances of God and of his 
church/ A slight concession was made to the 
liberal church party and to the popular demand 
for broader terms of membership in the pro- 
vision for those of "the weakest measure of 
faith," and in the substitution of a written ac- 
count of their Christian experience by those who 
were ill or timid. This written " experimental 
account " was to be read to the church by one 
of the elders. In the words of the Platform, 

developed. Otherwise his plan did not differ essentially from 
that of Mather. 

" " Even now, after a lapse of more than two hundred years 
the Platform (notwithstanding its errors here and there in the 
application of proof texts, and its one great error in regard 
to the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion) is 
the most authentic exposition of the Congregational church as 
given in the scriptures." — Leonard Bacon, in Contributions to 
the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, ed. of 1865, p. 15. 

* Cambridge Platform, chap. ii. 

c Ibid. chap. ii. 



92 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

" Such charity and tenderness is to be used, as 
the weakest Christian if sincere, may not be ex- 
cluded or discouraged. Severity of examination 
is to be avoided." ° 

(b) The officers of the church are elders and 
deacons, the former including, as of old, pastors, 
teachers, and ruling elders. That the authority 
within the church had passed from the unre- 
strained democracy of the early Plymouth Sepa- 
ratists to a silent democracy before the command 
of a speaking aristocracy^ is witnessed to by the 
Platform's declaration that " power of office " is 
proper to the elders, while "power of privilege" " 
belongs to the brethren. In other words, the 
brethren or membership have a " second " and 
" indirect power," according to which they are 
privileged to elect their elders. Thereafter those 
officers possess the " direct power," or author- 
ity, to govern the church as they see fit.^ In the 

" Cambridge Platform, chap. iii. 

'^ The definition of the rule of the elders, given by the Rev. 
Samuel Stone of Hartford, was " A speaking aristocracy in 
the face of a silent democracy." 

^ Cambridge Platform, chaps, iv-x. 

^ " We do believe that Christ hath ordained that there 
should be a Presbytery or Eldership and that in every Church, 
whose work is to teach and rule the Church by the Word and 
laws of Christ and unto whom so teaching and ruling, all the 
people ought to be obedient and submit themselves. And 
therefore a Government merely Popular or Democratical . . . 
is far from the practice of these Churches and we believe far 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 93 

matter of admission, dismission, censure, excom- 
munication, or re-admission of members, the 
brotherhood of the church may express their 
opinion by vote." In cases of censure and ex- 
communication, the Platform specifies that the 
offender could be made to suffer only through 
deprivation of his church rights and not through 
any loss of his civil ones.'' In the discussion of 
this point, the more liberal policy of Connecticut 
and Plymouth prevailed. 

(c) In regard to pastors and teachers, the 
Platform affirms that they are such only by 
the right of election and remain such only so 

from the mind of Christ." However, the brethren should not 
be wholly excluded from its government or its liberty to 
choose its officers, admit members and censure ofEenders. — 
R. Mather, Church Government and Church Covenant Discussed, 
pp. 47-50. 

" The Gospel alloweth no Church authority or rule (properly 
so called) to the Brethren but reserveth that wholly to the 
Elders ; and yet preventeth tyrannee, and oligarchy, and ex- 
orbitancy of the Elders by the large and firm establishment of 
the liberties of the Brethren." — J. Cotton, The Keys of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, p. 12. 

"In regard to Christ, the head, the government of the 
Church, is sovereign and Monarchieall : In regard to the rule 
of the Presbytery, it is stewardly and Aristocraticall : In regard 
to the people's power in elections and censures, it is Demo- 
craticall." — The Keys, p. 36 ; see also Church- Government and 
Church Covenant, pp. 51-.53. 

" Cambridge Platform, chap. x. 

^ Ibid. chap. xiv. 



94 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

long as they preside over the church by which 
they were elected.^ 

Their ordination after election, as well as that 
of the ruling elders and deacons, is to be by the 
laying on of hands of the elders of the church 
electing them. In default of elders, this ordina- 
tion is to be by the hands of brethren whom be- 
cause of their exemplary lives the church shall 
choose to perform the rite.* A new provision was 
also made, one leaning toward Presbyterianism, 
whereby elders of other churches could perform 
this ceremony, " when there were no elders and 
the church so desired." 

(d) Church maintenance, amounting to a 
church tax, was insisted upon not only from 
church-members but from all, since " all that are 
taught in the word, are to contribute unto him 
that teacheth." If necessary, because corrupt 
men creep into the congregations and church 
contributions cannot be collected, the magistrate 
is to see to it that the church does not suffer.'' 

(e) The Platform defined the intercommun- 
ion of the churches ^ upon such broad lines as 
to admit of sympathetic fellowship even when 
slight differences existed in local customs. In 
so important a matter as when an offending 

« Cambridge Platform, chap. ix. ^ Ibid. chap. ix. 

^ Ibid. chap. xi. ^ Ibid. chap. xv. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 95 

elder was to be removed, consultation with other 
churches was commanded before action should 
be taken against him. The intercommunion of 
churches was defined as of various kinds : as for 
mutual welfare ; for sisterly advice and consulta- 
tion, in cases of public offense, where the offending 
church was unconscious of fault ; for recom- 
mendation of members going from one church to 
another ; for need, relief, or succor of unfortunate 
churches ; and " by way of propagation," when 
over-populous churches were to be divided. 

(f) Concerning synods,*^ the Platform asserts 
that they are " necessary to the well-being of 
churches for the establishment of truth and 
peace therein ; " that they are to consist of elders, 
or ministerial delegates, and also of lay delegates, 
or " messengers ; " that their function is to de- 
termine controversies over questions of faith, to 
debate matters of general interest, to guide and 
to express judgment upon churches, " rent by 
discord or lying under open scandal." Synods 
could be called by the churches, and also by the 
magistrates through an order to the churches to 
send their elders and messengers, but they were 
not to be permanent bodies. On the contrary, 
unlike the synods of the Presbyterian system, 
they were to be disbanded when the work of the 

« Cambridge Platform, chap. xvi. 



96 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

special session for which they were summoned 
was finished. Moreover, they were not " to ex- 
ercise church censure in the way of discipline 
nor any other act of authority or jurisdiction ; " 
yet their judgments were to be received, " so far 
as consonant to the word of God," since they 
were judged to be an ordinance of God appointed 
in his Word. 

(g) The Platform's section "Of the Civil 
Magistrate in matters Ecclesiastical " ° maintains 
that magistrates cannot compel subjects to be- 
come church-members; that they ought not to 
meddle with the proper work of officers of the 
churches, but that they ought to see to it that 
godliness is upheld, and the decrees of the church 
obeyed. To accompHsh these ends, they should 
exert all the civil authority intrusted to them, 
and their foremost duty was to put down blas- 
phemy, idolatry, and heresy. In any question as 
to what constituted the last, the magistrates 
assisted by the elders were to decide and to de- 
termine the measure of the crime. They were to 
punish the heretic, not as one who errs in an 
intellectual judgment, but as a moral leper and 

« Cambridge Platform, chap. xvii. 

According to Hooker's Survey the magistrates had the right 
to summon synods because they have the right to command 
the faculties of their subjects to deliberate concerning the 
good of the State. — Survey, pt. iv, p. 54 et seq. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 97 

for whose evil influence the community was re- 
sponsible to God. The civil magistrates were 
also to punish all profaners of the Sabbath, all 
contemners of the ministry, all disturbers of 
public worship, and to proceed " against schis- 
matic or obstinately corrupt churches." 

These seven points summarize the important 
work of the Cambridge Synod and the Platform 
wherein it embodied the church usage and fixed 
the ecclesiastical customs of New England. 
Concerning its own work, the Synod remarked 
in conclusion that it "hopes that this will be 
a proof to the churches beyond the seas that the 
New England churches are free from heresies 
and from the character of schism," and that " in 
the doctrinal part of religion they have agreed 
entirely with the Eeformed churches of Eng- 
land." 36 

Let us in a few sentences review the whole 
story thus far of colonial Congregationalism. 
With the exception of the churches of Plymouth 
and Watertown, the colonists had come to Amer- 
ica without any definite religious organization. 
True, they had in their minds the example of 
the Reformed churches on the Continent, and 
much of theory, and many convictions as to what 
ought to be the rule of churches. These theories 
and these convictions soon crystallized out. And 



98 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the transatlantic crystallization was found to 
yield results, some of which were very similar 
to the modifications which time had wrought in 
England upon the rough and embryonic forms 
of Congregationalism as set forth by Eobert 
Browne and Henry Barrowe. The character- 
istics of Congregationalism during its first quar- 
ter of a century upon New England soil were: 
the clearly defined independence or self-govern- 
ment of the local churches ; the fellowship of 
the churches; the development of large and 
authoritative powers in the eldership ; a more 
exact definition of the functions of synods, a 
definite limitation of their authority ; and, finally, 
a recognition of the authority of the civil magis- 
trates in religious affairs generally, and of their 
control in special cases arising within individual 
churches. In the growing power of the eldership, 
and in the provision of the Platform which per- 
mits ordination by the hands of elders of other 
churches, when a church had no elders and its 
members so desired, there is a trend toward the 
polity of the Presbyterian system. In the Plat- 
form's definition of the power of the magistrates 
over the religious life of the community, there 
is evident the colonists' conviction that, not- 
withstanding the vaunted independence of the 
churches, there ought to be some strong external 



LIBEKTY IN CONNECTICUT 99 

authority to uphold them and their discipline ; 
some power to fall back upon, greater than 
the censure of a single church or the combined 
strength and influence derived from advisory 
councils and unauthoritative synods. In Con- 
necticut, this control by the civil power was to 
increase side by side with the tendency to rely 
upon advisory councils. From this twofold de- 
velopment during a period of sixty years, there 
arose the rigid autonomy of the later Saybrook 
system of church-government, wherein the civil 
authority surrendered to ecclesiastical courts its 
supreme control of the churches. 

Turning from the text of the Cambridge Plat- 
form to its application, we find among the earli- 
est churches " rent by discord," schismaticaUy 
corrupt, and to be disciplined according to its 
provisions, that of Hartford, Connecticut. From 
the earliest years of the Connecticut colony there 
had been within it a large party, constantly in- 
creasing, who, because they were unhappy and 
aggrieved at having themselves and their chil- 
dren shut out of the churches, had advocated 
admitting all of moral life to the communion 
table. The influence of Thomas Hooker kept 
the discontent within bounds until his death in 
1647, the year before the Cambridge Synod met. 
Thereafter, the conservative and liberal factions 

Lore. 



100 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

in many of the churches came quickly into open 
conflict. The Hartford church in particular be- 
came rent by dissension so great that neither the 
counsel of neighboring churches nor the com- 
mands of the General Court, legislating in the 
manner prescribed by the Cambridge instrument, 
could heal the schism. The trouble in the Hart- 
ford church arose because of a difference between 
Mr. Stone, the minister, and Elder Goodwin, 
who led the minority in their preference for a 
candidate to assist their pastor. Before the dis- 
covery of documents relating to the controversy, 
it was the custom of earlier historians to refer 
the dispute to political motives. But this church 
feud, and the discussion which it created through- 
out Connecticut, was purely religious, and had to 
do with matters of church privileges and event- 
ually with rights of baptism." The conflict origi- 

^ "However the controversy of the Connecticut River 
churches was embittered by political interests, it was essen- 
tially nothing else than the fermentation of that leaven of 
Presbyterianism which came over with the later Puritan emi- 
gration, and which the Cambridge Platform, with all its expli- 
citness in asserting the rules given by the Scriptures, had 
not effectually purged." — L. Bacon, in Contrib. to Eccl. Hist, 
of Conn., p. 17. 

See also H. M. Dexter, Congr. as seen in Lit., pp. 468-69. 

Of the twenty-one contemporaneous documents, by various 
authors, none mention baptism as in any way an issue in 
debate. " Dr. Trumbull probably touches the real root of 
the affair when he speaks of the controversy as one concerning 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 101 

nated through Mr. Stone's conception of his 
ministerial authority, which belonged rather to 
the period of his English training and which was 
concisely set forth by his oft-quoted definition of 
the rule of the elders as " a speaking aristocracy 
in the face of a silent democracy."'^ Mr. Stone 
and Elder Goodwin, the two chief officers in the 
Hartford church, each commanded an influen- 
tial following. Personal and political affiliations 
added to the bitterness of party bias in the dis- 
pute which raged over the following three ques- 
tions : (a) What were the rights of the minority 
in the election of a minister whom they were 
obliged to support ? (b) What was the proper 
mode of ecclesiastical redress if these rights were 

the * rights of the brotherhood,' and the conviction, entertained 
by Mr. Goodwin, that these rights had been disregarded." 
The question of baptism ran parallel with the question under 
debate, incidentally mixed itself with and outlived it to be 
the cause of a later quarrel that should split the church. — 
G. L. Walker, First Church in Hartford, p. 154. 

« Mr. Stone admitted : " (1) I acknowledge y' it is a liberty of 
y^ church to declare their apprehensions by vote about y' fit- 
ness of a p'son for ojffice upon his tryall. 

(2) "I look at it as a received truth y* an officer may in 
some cases lawfully hinder y® church from putting forth at 
this or y* time an act of her liberty. 

(3) " I acknowledge y' I hindered y* church fro declaring 
their apprehensions by vote (upon y* day in question) con- 
cerning Mr. Wigglesworth's fitness for office in y* church of 
Hartford." — Conn. Historical Society Papers, ii. 51-125. 



102 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ignored ? (c) What were those baptismal rights 
and privileges which the Cambridge Platform 
had not definitely settled ? The discussion of the 
first two questions precipitated into the fore- 
ground the still unanswered third. The turmoil 
in the Hartford church continued for years and 
was provocative of disturbances throughout the 
colony. Accordingly, in May, 1656, a petition 
was presented to the General Court by persons 
unknown, asking for broader baptismal privi- 
leges. Moved by the appeal, the Court appointed 
a committee, consisting of the governor, lieuten- 
ant-governor and two deputies, to consult with 
the elders of the churches and to draw up a series 
of questions embodying the grievances which 
were complained of throughout the colony as well 
as in the Hartford church. The Court further 
commanded that a copy of these questions be sent 
to the General Courts of the other three colonies, 
that they might consider them and advise Con- 
necticut as to some method of putting an end to 
ecclesiastical disputes. As Connecticut was not 
the only colony having trouble of this sort, Mas- 
sachusetts promptly ordered thirteen of her elders 
to meet at Boston during the following summer, 
and expressed a desire for the cooperation of the 
churches of the confederated colonies. Plymouth 
did not respond. New Haven rejected the pro- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 103 

posed conference. She feared that it would re- 
sult in too great changes in church discipline 
and, consequently, in her civil order, — changes 
which she believed would endanger the peace and 
purity of her churches ; ^ yet she sent an exposi- 
tion, written by John Davenport, of the ques- 
tions to be discussed. The Connecticut General 
Court, glad of Massachusetts' appreciative sym- 
pathy, appointed delegates, advising them to first 
take counsel together concerning the questions 
to be considered at Boston, and ordered them 
upon their return to report to the Court. 

The two questions which since the summoning 
of the Cambridge Synod had been under discus- 
sion throughout aU New England were the right 
of non-covenanting parishioners in the choice of 
a minister, and the rights of children of baptized 
parents, that had not been admitted to full mem- 
bership. These were the main topics of discus- 
sion in the Synod, or, more properly. Ministerial 

« In the New Haven letter, she wrote, " We hear the peti- 
tioners, or others closing with them, are very confident they 
shall obtain great alterations both in civil government and 
church discipline, and that some of them have procured and 
hired one as their agent, to maintain in writing (as it is con- 
ceived) that parishes in England, consenting to and continuing 
their meetings to worship God, are true churches, and such 
persons coming over thither, (without holding forth any work 
of faith) have all right to church privileges." — New Haven 
Col. Records, iii, 186. 



104 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Convention, of 1657, which assembled in Boston, 
and which decreed the Half -Way Covenant. The 
Assembly decided in regard to baptism that 
persons, who had been baptized in their infancy, 
but who, upon arriving at maturity, had not 
publicly professed their conversion and united in 
fuU membership with the church, were not fit to 
receive the Lord's Supper : — 

Yet in case they understood the Grounds of Reli- 
gion and are not scandalous, and solemnly own the 
Covenant in their own persons," wherein they give 
themselves and their own children unto the Lord, and 
desire baptism for them, we (with due reverence to 
any Godly Learned that may dissent) see not suffi- 
cient cause to deny Baptism unto their children.®'^ 

Church care and oversight were to be extended 
to such children. But in order to go to com- 
munion, or to vote in church affairs, the old 
personal, public profession that for so many 
years had been indispensable to " signing the 
covenant " was retained ^^ and must still be 
given. 

This Half-Way Covenant, as it came to be 
called, enlarged the terms of baptism and of 
admission to church privileges as they had been 
set forth in the Cambridge Platform. The new 

« That is, they assent to the main truths of the Gospel and 
promise obedience to the church they desire to join. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 105 

measure held within itself a contradiction to the 
foundation principle of Congregationalism. A 
dual membership was introduced by this attempt 
to harmonize the Old Testament promise, that 
God's covenant was with Abraham and his seed 
forever, with the Congregational type of church 
which the New Testament was believed to set 
forth. The former theory must imply some mea- 
sure of true faith in the children of baptized 
parents, whether or no they had fulfilled their 
duty by making public profession and by uniting 
with the church. This duty was so much a 
matter of course with the first colonists, and so 
deeply ingrained was their loyalty to the faith 
and practice which one generation inherited from 
another, that it never occurred to them that 
future descendants of theirs might view differ- 
ently these obligations of church membership. 
But a difficulty arose later when the adult obli- 
gation implied by baptism in infancy ceased to 
be met, and when the question had to be settled 
of how far the parents' measure of faith carried 
grace with it. Did the inheritance of faith, of 
which baptism was the sign and seal, stop with 
the children, or with the grandchildren, or where ? 
To push the theory of inherited rights would re- 
sult eventually in destroying the covenant church, 
bringing in its stead a national church of mixed 



106 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

membersliip ; to press the original requirements 
of the covenant upon an unwilling people would 
lessen the membership of the churches, expose 
them to hostile attack, and to possible overthrow. 
The colonists compromised upon this dual mem- 
bership of the Half- Way Covenant. As its full 
significance did not become apparent for years, 
the work of the Synod of 1657 was generally 
acceptable to the ministry, but it met with oppo- 
sition among the older laity. It was welcomed 
in Connecticut, where Henry Smith of Wethers- 
field as early as 1647, Samuel Stone of Hartford 
after 1650, and John Warham of Windsor, had 
been earnest advocates of its enlarged terms. 
As early as in his draft of the Cambridge Plat- 
form, Kalph Partridge of Duxbury in Plymouth 
colony had incorporated similar changes, and 
even then they had been seconded by Richard 
Mather." They had been omitted from the final 
draft of that Platform because of the opposition 

« Among Massachusetts clergymen, Thomas Allen of 
Charlestown, 1642, Thomas Shepherd, Cambridge, 1649, John 
Norton, Ipswich, 1653, held that the baptismal privileges 
should be widened, and John Cotton himself was slowly drift- 
ing toward this opinion. 

The Windsor church was the first in Connecticut to practice 
the Half -Way Covenant, January 31, 1657-58, to March 19, 
1664-65, when the pastor, having doubts as to its validity, dis- 
continued the practice until 1668, when it was again resumed. 
— Stiles, Ancient Windsor, p. 172. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 107 

of a small but influential group led by the Rev. 
Charles Chauncey. As early as 1650, it had be- 
come evident that public opinion was favorable 
to such a change, and that some church would 
soon begin to put in practice a theory which was 
held by so many leading divines. Though the 
Half -Way Covenant was strenuously opposed by 
the New Haven colony as a whole, Peter Prudden, 
its second ablest minister, had, as early as 1651, 
avowed his earnest support of such a mea- 
sure. 

The Half- Way Covenant was presented to 
the Connecticut General Court, August, 1657. 
Orders were at once given that copies of it 
should be distributed to all the churches with 
a request for a statement of any exceptions 
that any of them might have to it. None are 
known to have been returned. This was not due 
to any great unanimity of sentiment among the 
churches, for in Connecticut, as elsewhere, many 
of the older church-members were not so liberally 
inclined as their ministers, and were loth to 
follow their lead in this new departure. But 
when controversy broke out again in the Hart- 
ford church, in 1666, because of the baptism of 
some children, it was found that in the inter- 
val of eleven years those who favored the Half- 
Way covenant had increased in numbers in the 



108 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

church," and were rapidly gaining throughout 
the colony, especially in its northern half. By 
the absorption of the New Haven Colony, its 
southern boundary in 1664 had become the shore 
of Long Island Sound. 

Though public opinion favored the Half-Way 
Covenant, the practice of the churches was 
controlled by their exclusive membership, and, 
unless a majority thereof approved the new way, 
there was nothing to compel the church to 
broaden its baptismal privileges.* This differ- 
ence between public opinion and church practice, 
between the congregations and the coterie of 
church members, was provocative of clashing 
interests and of factional strife. For several 

" Stone held his party on the ground that over a matter of 
internal discipline a synod had no control, and that he could 
exercise Congregational discipline upon any seceders. The im- 
mediate result was the removal of the discontented to Boston 
or to Hadley ; where, however, they could not be admitted to 
another church until Stone had released them from his. This 
he refused to do. Thus, he showed the power of a minister, 
when backed by a majority, to inflict virtual excommunica- 
tion. This could be done even though his authority was open 
to question. — J. A. Doyle, Puritan Colonies, ii, p. 77. 

^ Meanwhile the Massachusetts Synod (purely local) of 
1662 stood seven to one in favor of the Half-Way Covenant 
practice, and had reaffirmed the fellowship of the churches 
according to the synodical terms of the Cambridge Platform, 
as against a more authoritative system of consociation, pro- 
posed by Thomas Shepherd of Cambridge. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 109 

years these factional differences were held in 
check and made subordinate to the urgent politi- 
cal situation which the restoration of the Stuarts 
had precipitated, and which demanded harmoni- 
ous action among the colonists. A royal charter 
had to be obtained, and when obtained, it gave 
Connecticut dominion over the New Haven col- 
ony. The lower colony had to be reconciled to 
its loss of independence, in so much as the gov- 
erning party, with its influential following of 
conservatives, objected to the consolidation. The 
liberals, a much larger party numerically, pre- 
ferred to come under the authority of Connecti- 
cut and to enjoy her less restrictive church policy 
and her broader political life. Matters were 
finally adjusted, and delegates from the old New 
Haven colony first took their seats as members 
of the General Court of Connecticut at the 
spring session of 1665. Thereafter, in Connect- 
icut history, especially its religious history, the 
strain of liberalism most often follows the old 
lines of the Connecticut colony, while that of 
conservatism is more often met with as reflect- 
ing the opinions of those within the former 
boundaries of that of New Haven. 

It was in the year following the union of the 
two colonies that the quarrel in the Hartford 
church broke out afresh. The fall preceding the 



110 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

consolidation of the colonies, an appeal was 
made to the Connecticut General Court which 
helped to swell the dissatisfaction in the Hart- 
ford church and to bring it to the bursting point. 
In October, 1664, William Pitkin, by birth a 
member of the English Established Church " and 
a man much esteemed in the colony, as shown, 
politically, by his office of attorney ,2^ and socially 
by his marriage with Elder Goodwin's daughter, 
petitioned the General Court in behalf of him- 
self and six associates that it — 

would take into serious consideration our present state 
in this respect that wee are thus as sheep scattered 
haveing no shepheard, and compare it with what wee 
conceive you can not but know both God and our 
King would have it different from what it now is. 
And take some speedy and effectual course of redress 
herein, And put us in full and free capacity of in joy- 
ing those forementioned Advantages which to us as 
members of Christ's visible Church doe of right be- 
long. By establishing some wholesome Law in this 

« It must be remembered that the " Church of England 
meant the aggregate of English Christians, whether in the up- 
shot of the movements which were going on (1630-1660), their 
polity should turn out to be Episcopal or Presbyterian, or some- 
thing different from either." — Palfrey, Comprehensive Hist, 
of New England, i, p. 111. J. R. Green, Short Hist, of the 
Eng. People, p. 544. 

In England, Pitkin had been a member of the church of the 
Commonwealth, and in all probability was not an Episcopalian 
or Church-of -England man in the usual sense. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 



111 



Corporation by vertue whereof wee may both clame 
and receive of such officers as are, or shall be by 
Law set over us in the Church or churches where wee 
have our abode or residence those forementioned 
privileges and advantages. 

Further wee humbly request that for the future no 
Law in this corporation may be of any force to make 
us pay or contribute to the maintenance of any Min- 
ister or officer in the Church that will neglect or re- 
fuse to baptize our Children, and to take charge of 
us as of such members of the Church as are under 
his or their charge and care — 

Signed — 
Admitted freeman 

Oct. 9th, 1662, 
Admitted freeman 

May 21, 1657, 
Admitted freeman 

May 18, 1654, 



Hartford, Wm. Pitkin. 
Windsor, Michael Humphrey. 



Hartford, 
Windsor, 



Admitted freeman 
May 20, 1658, 

Admitted freeman 
May 20, 1658, 



Windsor, 



John Stedman. 
James Eno. 

Robart Reeve. 
John Morse. 

Jonas Westover. ^^ 



Windsor, 

Eno and Humphrey had been complained of 
because their insistence upon what they consid- 
ered their rights had caused disturbance in the 
Windsor church. Now, with the other petition- 
ers, they based their appeal in part upon the 



112 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

King's Letter to the Bay Colony of June 26th, 
1662, wherein Charles commanded that " all 
persons of good and honest lives and conversa- 
tion be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper, according to the said book of common 
prayer, and their children to baptism." 

This petition of Pitkin and his associates was 
the first notable expression of dissatisfaction 
with the Congregationalism of Connecticut. 
Several Episcopal writers have quoted it as the 
first appeal of Churchmen in Connecticut. In 
itself, it forbids such construction. The peti- 
tioners had come from England and from the 
church of the Commonwealth. They were asking 
either for toleration in the spirit of the Half- 
Way Covenant or for some special legislation in 
their behalf. Further, they were demanding reli- 
gious care and baptism for their children from a 
clergy who, from the point of view of any strict 
Episcopalian, had no right to officiate ; and, 
again, it was nearly ten years before the first 
Church-of-England men found their way to 
Stratford.4i 

The Court made reply to Pitkin's petition by 
sending to all the churches a request that they 
consider — 

whither it be not their duty to entertaine all such 
persons, who are of honest and godly conuersation, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 113 

hauing a competency of knowledge in the principles 
of religion, and shall desire to joyne wi*^ them in 
church fellowship, by an explicitt couenant, and that 
they haue their children baptized, and that all the 
children of the church be accepted and acco*^ reall 
members of the church and that the church exercise 
a due christian care and watch ouer them ; and that 
when they are grown up, being examined by the offi- 
cer in the presence of the church, it appeares in the 
judgment of charity, they are duly qualified to parti- 
cipate in the great ordinance of the Lord's Supper, by 
their being able to examine and discerne the Lord's 
body, such persons be admitted to full comunion. 

The Court desires y* the seueraU officers of y® re- 
spectiue churches, would be pleased to consider whither 
it be the duty of the Court to order churches to prac- 
tice according to the premises, if they doe not practice 
wi^'^out such an order.*^ 

The issue was now fairly before the churches 
of the colony. The delegates of the people had 
expressed the opinion of the majority. The Court 
had invited the expression of any dissent that 
might exist, yet, despite the invitation, it had is- 
sued almost an order to the churches to practice 
the Half -Way Covenant, and with large interpre- 
tation, applying it, not only to the baptism of 
children who had been born of parents baptized 
in the colonial church, but also to those whose 
parents had been baptized in the English com- 



114 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

munion, at least during the Commonwealtli." 
Pitkin at once proceeded in behalf of himseK and 
several of his companions to apply for " com- 
munion with the church of Hartford in all the 
ordinances of Christ." *^ This the church refused, 
and wrought its factions up to white heat over 
the baptism of some child or children of non-com- 
municants. The storm broke. Other churches 
felt its effects. Windsor church was rent by 
faction, Stratford was in turmoil over the Half- 
Way Covenant, and other churches were divided. 
Some means had to be found to put an end to 
the increasing disorder. Accordingly the Court 
in October, 1666, commanded the presence of 
all the preaching elders and ministers within 
the colony at a synod to find " some way or 
means to bring those ecclesiastical matters that 
are in difference in the severall Plantations to 
an issue." The Court felt obliged to change the 
name of the appointed meeting from "synod" to 
" assembly " to avoid the jealousy of the churches. 
They were afraid that the civil power would over- 
step its authority, and by calling a synod, com- 

" Such an order could only produce f uther disturbance. Strat- 
ford and Nor walk protested. As a rule the order was most 
unwelcome in the recently acquired New Haven colony. Mr. 
Pierson of Branford, with some of the conservative church 
people of Guilford and New Haven, went to New Jersey to 
escape its consequences. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 115 

posed of elders only, establish a precedent for 
the exclusion of lay delegates from such bodies. 
Before this " assembly " could meet, it was shorn 
of influence through the politics of the conservative 
Hartford faction, who succeeded in passing a bill 
at the session of the Commissioners of the United 
Colonies, which read : — 

That in matters of common concern of faith or 
order necessitating a Synod, it should be a Synod 
composed of messengers from all the colonies.^^ 

Accordingly, Connecticut's next step was to 
invite Massachusetts to join in a sjmod to debate 
seventeen questions of which several had been 
submitted to the Synod of 1657, and had re- 
mained unanswered. Among them were the 
questions of the right to vote in the choice of 
minister ; of minority rights ; and where to ap- 
peal in cases of censure believed to be unmer- 
ited." Massachusetts courteously replied that the 

« Among the questions, still unanswered, which had been 
submitted in 1657 were : (9) " Whether it doth belong- to the 
body of a town, collectively taken, jointly, to call him to be 
their minister whom the church shall choose to be their officer." 
(13) " Whether the church, her invitation and election of an 
officer, or preaching elder, necessitates the whole congregation 
to sit down satisfied, as bound to accept him as their minister 
though invited and settled without the town's consent." (11) 
" Unto whom shall such persons repair who are grieved by any 
church process or censure, or whether they must acquiesce in 



116 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

questions would be considered if submitted in 
writing ; but she was at heart so indifferent that 
negotiations for a colonial synod lapsed, and Con- 
necticut was left to adjust the differences in her 
churches. Consequently, in May, 1668, the 
Court, — 

for promoting and establishing peace in the churches 
and plantations because of various apprehensions in 
matters of discipline respecting membership and bap- 
tism, — 

appointed a committee of influential men in the 
colony to search out the rules for discipline and 
see how far persons of " various apprehensions " 
could walk together in church fellowship. This 
committee reported at the October session, and 
the Court, after accepting their decision, formally 
declared the Congregational church established 
and its older customs approved, asserting that — 

Whereas the Congregationall churches in these 
partes for the generall of their profession and practice 
have hitherto been approued, we can doe no less than 
stiU approue and countenance the same to be wi*^out 
disturbance until a better light in an orderly way doth 
appeare ; but yet f oreasmuch as sundry persons of 
worth for prudence and piety amongst us are other- 
wise perswaded (whose welfare and peaceable satis- 

the churches under which they belong." — Trumbull, Hist, of 
Conn, i, 302-3. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 117 

faction we desire to accommodate) This Court doth 
declare that all such persons being also approued to 
lawe as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of 
Christian religion may haue allowance of their per- 
swasion and profession in church wayes or assemblies 
w^^'out disturbance. 

The liberal church party had won the privi- 
leges for which they had contended, but the 
conservatives were not beaten, for it was upon 
their conception of church government that the 
Court set its seal of approval. The Court had 
been tolerant, and the churches must be also. 
Upon such terms, the old order was to continue 
" until a better light should appear." The tol- 
erance toward changing conditions, thus ex- 
pressed, was further emphasized by the Court's 
command to the churches to accept into full mem- 
bership certain worthy people who could not bring 
themselves to agree fully with aU the old order 
had demanded. The second part of the enactment 
just quoted was, strictly speaking, Connecticut's 
first toleration act; yet it must be realized that 
now, as later, the degree of toleration admitted 
no release from the support of an unacceptable 
ministry or from fines for neglect of its ministra- 
tions. Tolerance was here extended not to dis- 
senters, but only to varying shades of opinions 
within a common faith and fold. 



118 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

In the spirit of such legislation, the Court ad- 
vised the Hartford church to " walk apart." The 
advice was accepted, the church divided, and the 
members who went out reorganized as the Second 
Church of Hartford. Other discordant churches 
quickly followed this example. The Second 
Church of Hartford immediately put forth a de- 
claration, asserting that its Congregationalism 
was that of the old original New England type. 
The force of public opinion was so great, how- 
ever, that despite its declaration, the Second 
Church began at once to accept the Half -Way 
Covenant. " The only result of their profession 
was to give a momentary name to the struggle 
as between Congregationalist and Presbyte- 
rian."*^ It was no effective opposition to the 
onward development in Connecticut of the new 
order. When the churches found that neither 
the old nor the new way was to be insisted upon, 
the violence of faction ceased. The dual member- 
ship was accepted. For a while, its line of cleav- 
age away from the old system, with its local 
church "as a covenanted brotherhood of souls 
renewed by the experience of God's grace," was 
not realized, any more than that the new system 
was merging the older type of church " into the 
parish where all persons of good moral character, 
living within the parochial bounds, were to have, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 119 

as in England and Scotland, the privilege of 
baptism for their households and of access to the 
Lord's table." ^^ Another move in this direction 
was taken when the splitting ofE of churches, and 
the forming of more than one within the original 
parish bounds, necessitated a further departure 
from the principles of Congregationalism, and 
when the sequestration of lands for the benefit 
of clergy became a feature of the new order.*'' 
In this formation of new churches, the oldest 
parish was always the First Society.'^ Those 
formed later did not destroy it or affect its ante- 
cedent agreements.*^ Only sixty-six years had 
passed (1603-1669) since the publication of the 
" Points of Difference " between the Separatists, 
the London- Amsterdam exiles, and the Church 
of England, wherein insistence had been laid 
upon the principles of a covenanted church, of 
its voluntary support, and of the unrighteousness 
of churches possessing either lands or revenue ! 
The pendulum had swung from the broad demo- 
cracy and large liberty of Brownism through 

« In New England Congreg-ationalism, the church and the 
ecclesiastical society were separate and distinct bodies. The 
church kept the records of births, deaths, marriag-e, baptism, 
and membership, and, outside these, confined itself to spiritual 
matters ; the society dealt with all temporal affairs such as the 
care and control of all church property, the payment of min- 
isters' salaries, and also their calling, settlement, and dismissal. 



120 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

Barrowisra, past the Cambridge Platform (al- 
most the centre of its arc), and on through the 
HaK-Way Covenant to the beginning of a parish 
system. It had still farther to swing before it 
reached the end of the arc, marked by the Say- 
brook Platform, and before it began its slower 
return movement, to rest at last in the Congrega- 
tionalism of the past seventy years. 



CHAPTER V 

A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 
Alas for piety, alas for the ancient faith! 

Though Massachusetts had been indifferent 
and had left Connecticut to work out, unaided, 
her religious problem, the two colonies were by- 
no means unfriendly, and in each there was a 
large conservative party mutually sympathetic in 
their church interests. The drift of the liberal 
party in each colony was apart. The homogeneity 
of the Connecticut people put oif for a long 
while the embroilments, civil and religious, to 
which Massachusetts was frequently exposed 
through her attempts to restrain, restrict, and 
force into an inflexible mould her population, 
which was steadily becoming more numerous and 
cosmopolite. The English government received 
frequent complaints about the Bay Colony, and, 
as a result, Connecticut, by contrast of her 
" dutiful conduct " with that of " unruly Massa- 
chusetts," gained greater freedom to pursue her 
own domestic policy with its affairs of Church 
and State. Many of its details were unknown. 



122 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

or ignored, by the English government. The 
period when the four colonies had been united 
upon all measures of common welfare, whether 
temporal or spiritual, had passed. There were 
now three colonies. One of these, much weaker 
than the others, was destined within compara- 
tively few years to be absorbed by Massachusetts 
as New Haven had been by Connecticut. Mean- 
while, Massachusetts and Connecticut were de- 
veloping along characteristic lines and had each 
its individual problems to pursue. While in 
ecclesiastical affairs the conservative factions in 
the two colonies had much in common and con- 
tinued to have for a long time, the Reforming 
Synod of 1679-80, held in Boston, was the last 
in which all the New England churches had any 
vital interest, because a period of transition was 
setting in. This period of transition was marked 
by an expansion of settlements with its accom- 
panying spirit of land-grabbing, and by a lower- 
ing of tone in the community, as material inter- 
ests superseded the spiritual ones of the earlier 
generations, and as the Indian and colonial wars 
spread abroad a spirit of license. In the reli- 
gious life of the colonists, this transition made 
itself felt not alone in the character of its devo- 
tees, but in the ecclesiastical system itself, as it 
changed from the polity and practice embodied 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 123 

in the Cambridge Platform to that of a later 
day, and to the almost Presbyterian government 
expressed in the Say brook Platform of 1708. 
The transition in Massachusetts, in both secular 
and religious development, varied greatly from 
that in Connecticut. Hence, from the time of 
the Reforming Synod, the history of Connecti- 
cut is almost entirely the story of its own career, 
touching only at points the historical develop- 
ment of the other New England colonies. On 
the religious side, it is the story of the evolution 
of Connecticut's peculiar Congregationalism. 

The Reforming Synod of 1679-80 had been 
called by the Massachusetts General Court be- 
cause, in the words of that old historian, Thomas 
Prince : — 

A little after 1660, there began to appear Decay, 
And this increased to 1670, when it grew very visible 
and threatening, and was generally complained of 
and bewailed bitterly by the pious among them (the 
colonists) : and yet more to 1680, when but few of 
the first Generation remained.^® 

The reasons of this falling away from the 
standards of the first generation were many. In 
the first place, the colonists had become mere 
colonials. Upon the Stuart restoration, the strong- 
est ties which bound them to the pulsing life of 



124 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the mother country, the religious ones, were sev- 
ered. The colonists ceased to be the vanguard 
of a great religious movement, the possible haven 
of a new political state. Though they received 
many refugees from Stuart conformity, the reli- 
gious ties which bound them to the English non- 
conformists were weakened, and still more so 
when both the once powerful wings of the Puri- 
tan party, Presbyterian and Independent, were 
alike in danger of extinction. Shortly after the 
Revolution of 1688, when, under the larger toler- 
ance of William and Mary, the Presbyterians 
and Independents strove to increase their strength 
by a union based upon the " Heads of Agree- 
ment," English and colonial nonconformity 
moved for a brief time nearer, and then still 
farther apart. The " Heads of Agreement " " 
was a compromise so framed as to admit of ac- 
ceptance by the Presbyterian who recognized 
that he must, once for all, give up his hope of 
a national church, and by the Independent anx- 
iously seeking some bond of authority to hold 
together his weak and scattered churches. After 
this compromise, the religious life of the colo- 
nies ceased to be of vital importance to any large 
section of the English people. After the Resto- 

« The " Heads of Agreement " was destined to have more 
influence in America than in England. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 125 

ration the colonial agents became preeminently 
interested in secular affairs, in political privi- 
leges, and commercial advantages. The reaction 
was felt in the colonies by generations who 
lacked the heroic impulses of their fathers, their 
constant incentive, and their high standards. 
Moreover, the education of the second and third 
generation could not be like that of the first. 
The percentage of university men was less. 
New Harvard could not supply the place of old 
Cambridge. If life was easier, it was more 
material. 

Against such conditions as these, the Reform- 
ing Synod made little headway." It set forth 
in thirteen questions the offenses of the day 
and in the answer to each suggested remedies. 
To these questions and answers the synod added 
a confession of faith. This last was a reaffir- 
mation of the Westminster Confession of Faith 
as amended and approved by Parliament, or 
that found in the Savoy Declaration.^ In re- 

« The order of the Massachusetts Court was " for the re- 
■visall of the discipline agreed upon by the churches, 1647, and 
what else may appeare necessary for the preventing' schism, 
haeresies, prophaneness, and the establishment of the churches 
in one faith and order of the gospell." There was no ques- 
tioning of the Court's right to summon this synod, as there had 
been in 1646-48. 

* The Savoy Declaration of October, 1658, was put forth by 
the English leaders of the Independent, or Congregational, 



126 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

spect to churcli government, the Reforming 
Synod confirmed the " substance of the Platform 
of Discipline agreed upon by the messengers of 
these Churches at Cambridge, Anno Domini, 
1648," ^ desiring the churches to " continue 
steadfast in the Order of the Gospel according 
to what is therein declared from the Word of 
God." Cotton Mather in the " Magnalia," ^i writ- 
ing twenty years later, gives four points of de- 
parture from the Cambridge polity by the Re- 
forming Synod. First, occasional officiations 
of ministers outside their own churches were 
authorized ; secondly, there was a movement to 
revive the authority and office of ruling elder 
and other officers ; thirdly, " plebeian ordination," 

churches as a confession of faith, and in its thirty articles 
contained a declaration of church order. The formulated 
principles of church order were suggested by the Cambridge 
Platform but were neither so clear nor so fully stated as in the 
New England document. The Westminster Confession, the 
Savoy Declaration, and the later Heads of Agreement, were 
destined to have more influence in New England than in Eng- 
land, where the effect was transient. The Reforming Synod 
preferred the Savoy Declaration to the Westminster Confes- 
sion because the terms of the former were more strictly Con- 
gregational, and also because they wished to hold a confession 
in common with their trans-Atlantic brethren. The Massa- 
chusetts synod changed here and there a word in order to em- 
phasize the church-membership of children as a right derived 
through the Half- Way Covenant, and also to state explicitly 
the right of the civil authority to interfere in questions of 
doctrine. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 127 

or lay ordination, ordination by the hands of the 
brethren of the church in the absence of superior 
officers, was no longer allowed ; ^ and fourthly, 
there was a variation from the " personal and 
public confession " in favor of a private exami- 
nation by the pastor of candidates for church- 
membership, though the earlier custom was still 
regarded as " lawful, expedient and useful." 
With reference to the office of ruling elder, it 
had been done away with in many churches, 
partly because of lack of suitable men to fill the 
office, partly because of the mistakes of incom- 
petents, and partly because of a growing doubt 
as to the Scriptural sanction for such an office. 
In many churches the office of teacher had also 
been abolished, the pastor inheriting all the au- 
thority formerly lodged in the eldership, and as 
he retained his power of veto, it came about 
that the churches were largely in the power of 
one man. 

Plymouth and Connecticut colonies strongly 
approved the work of this local Massachusetts 
synod. As a result of the interest excited by its 
suggestions to increase church discipline, for laws 

« In 1660 the lay ordination of the Rev. Thomas Bucking-- 
ham of Saybrook, Conn., was strong-ly opposed by a council of 
churches, but it was reluctantly yielded to the insistent church. 
— J. B. Felt, Eccl History, ii, 207. 



128 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to encourage morality and Christian instruction, 
and for renewed zeal on the part of individuals 
in godly living, a goodly number of converts were 
immediately added to the churches throughout 
all the colonies. Of these, the larger number 
were admitted on the Half-Way Covenant. But 
times had changed, and the churches could not 
keep pace. The attempts to enforce religion were 
fruitless," and only go to show that political in- 
terests, that wars,^ with their accompanying ex- 
citement and license, and that engrossing civil 
affairs had torn men's minds from the old inter- 
ests in religious controversies and in religious 
customs. 

The Church itself had deteriorated as the 

a " Whereas this Court [the General Court of Connecticut] 
in the calamitous times of '75 and '76 were moved to make 
some laws for the suppression of some provoaking evils which 
were feared to be growing- up amongst us : viz. — prophanation 
of the Sabbath ; neglect of catechizing children and servants 
and f amaly prayer ; young persons shaking off the government 
of parents or masters; boarders and inmates neglecting the 
worship of God in famalyes where they reside ; tipling & 
drinkeing ; uncleanness ; oppression in workmen and traders ; 
which laws have little prevailed. It is therefore ordered by 
this Court that the selectmen constables and grand-jury men 
in their several plantations shall have a special care in their 
respective places to promote the due and full attendance of 
these aforementioned orders of this Court." 

^ King Philip's War, 1675-76 ; the usurpation of Andros ; 
King William's War, 1689-97, with its expedition against 
Quebec; Queen Anne's War, 1702-13. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 129 

towns in their civil capacity had undertaken the 
support of the minister and to collect his rates. 
Even earlier began, also, the gradual change by 
which the election of the minister passed from the 
small group of church communicants, or fuU 
membership, to the larger body of the Society, 
and finally to the town. This change was partly 
brought about through the increasing acceptance 
of the Half- Way Covenant with its attendant 
results. In some localities, " owning the Cove- 
nant " and presenting one's children for baptism 
came to be considered not as a necessary fulfill- 
ing of inherited duties (because of inherited 
baptismal privileges) and the consequent recog- 
nition of moral obligations, but as meritorious 
acts, having of themselves power to benefit the 
participants. Further, the rite of baptism, con- 
fined at first to children one at least of whose 
parents had been baptized, was later permitted 
to any for whom a satisfactory person — any 
one not flagrantly immoral — could be found to 
promise that the child should have religious 
training. Still another factor in the lowering of 
religious life was Stoddardeanism, or the teach- 
ing of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard of North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, a most powerful preacher 
and for many years the most influential minister 
throughout the Connecticut valley. As early as 



130 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

1679, lie began to teach that baptized persons, 
who had owned the covenant, should be admitted 
to the Lord's Supper, so that the rite itself might 
exercise in them a regenerating grace. In its 
origin, this teaching was probably intended as a 
protest against a morbid, introspective, and weak- 
ening self-examination on the part of many who 
doubted their fitness to go to communion. But 
as a result of the interworking of this teaching 
and of the practice of the Half- Way Covenant, 
church membership came in time to include 
almost any one not openly vicious, and willing 
to give intellectual, or nominal, assent to church 
doctrines and also to a few church regulations. 
With the change, the large body of townsmen 
became the electors of the minister. Cotton 
Mather in the " Ratio Disciplinse " ^^ illustrates 
these changing conditions when he tells us that 
the communicants felt that the right to elect the 
minister was invested in them as the real church 
of Christ, and that, in order to avoid strife or 
the defeat of their candidate by the majority of 
the town, they would customarily propose a 
choice between two nominees. 

Carelessness of the churches in admitting mem- 
bers had had its counterpart in the carelessness 
of the towns in admitting inhabitants. Very 
early, as early as 1658, the Connecticut General 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 131 

Court had been obliged to call them to order. 
The March session of 1658-59 had limited 
the franchise to all inhabitants of twenty-one 
years of age or over who were householders 
(that is, married men), and who had thirty 
pounds estate, or who had borne office. This was 
shortly changed to " thirty pounds of proper 
personal estate," or who had bor^ie office. The 
ratable estate in the colony averaged sixty 
pounds per inhabitant at this time. Up to 
March, 1658-59, the towns had admitted in- 
habitants by a majority vote. These admitted 
inhabitants, armed with a certificate of good 
character from their town, presented themselves 
before the General Court as candidates for the 
freeman's franchise, and were admitted or not as 
the Court saw fit. Disfranchisement was the 
penalty for any scandalous behavior on the part 
of the successful candidate. One reason for the 
new and restrictive legislation was that from 
1657 to 1660, from some cause unknown, large 
numbers of undesirable colonists flocked into the 
Connecticut towns, and thus it happened that, 
as the Church broadened her idea of member- 
ship, the State had need to limit its conception 
of democracy. Consequently, it narrowed the 
franchise by adding to the original requirements 
a large property qualification, and continued to 



132 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

demand the certificates of good character. More- 
over, the candidates were further required to 
present their credentials in October, and they 
were not to be passed upon until the next session 
of the Court in the following April. This two- 
fold change in the religious and political life of 
the colony gave greater flexibility and greater 
security, for " with church and state practically 
intertwined, the theory of the one had been too 
narrow and of the other too broad." ^^ After the 
change in the franchise, records of the towns 
show that there was less disorder in admitting 
inhabitants and more care taken as to their per- 
sonal character. 

As the townsmen became the electors of the 
minister, and when the new latitude in member- 
ship had been accepted by the churches, there 
soon appeared a growing slackness of discipline 
and also an increase of authority in the hands of 
the ministers and their subordinate deaconry. 
This excess of authority in the hands of one man 
tended to one-man rule and to frequent friction 
between the minister and his people. As a result 
councils might be called against councils in the 
attempt to settle questions or disputes between 
pastors and people. Consequently, among conser- 
vatives, there came to be the feeling that there 
ought to be some authoritafive body to supervise 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 133 

the churclies, — one to which both pastor and 
people could appeal disputed points. 

In Massachusetts, the Connecticut colonists 
saw a strenuous attempt to establish such an 
authority. Between 1690 and 1705, the Massa- 
chusetts clergy had revived the early custom of 
fortnightly meetings of neighboring ministers. 
The new associations were purely voluntary ones 
for mutual assistance, for debate upon matters 
of common interest, or for consultation over 
special difficulties, whether pertaining to churches 
or to their individual members, which might be 
brought before them. These associations grew 
in favor, and later became a permanent feature 
of New England Congregationalism. Because 
they were received with so much favor at the 
time of their revival, the conservative Massachu- 
setts clergy attempted in the " Proposals of 
1705" to increase the ministerial and synodical 
power within the churches, and to bring about 
a reformation in manners and morals by giving 
to these associations very large and authorita- 
tive powers. The Proposals provided that all 
ministers should be joined in Associations for 
mutual help and advice ; for licensing candidates 
for the ministry; for providing for pastorless 
churches; for a general oversight of religion, 
and for the examination of charges brought 



134 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

against their own members. Standing Councils, 
composed of delegates from the Associations and 
also of a proper number of delegates (apparently 
laymen) to represent the membership of the 
churches, were to be established. These were to 
control all church matters throughout the colony 
that were " proper for the consideration of an 
ecclesiastical council," and obedience to their 
judgments was to be enforced under penalty of 
forfeiture of church-fellowship. The Proposals 
were approved by the majority of the Massachu- 
setts clergy ; but the liberal party within the 
churches would not accede to their demands, and 
the General Court would not sanction the Pro- 
posals in the face of such opposition. Conse- 
quently, the essential feature of the Proposals, 
the Standing Councils, was never adopted. But 
the attempt to establish them invigorated the 
Associations, and the licensing of candidates was 
arranged for. 

Many people in Connecticut approved the 
tenor of the Proposals and desired a similar sys- 
tem. Moreover, there never was a time when the 
General Court was so ready to delegate to an 
ecclesiastical body the control of the churches. 
The trustees of the young college, Yale, the most 
representative gathering of clergymen in the 
colony, were anxious to have the Court establish 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 135 

some system of ecclesiastical government stronger 
tlian that existing among the churches, and to 
have it send out some approved confession of 
faith and discipline. Consequently, when, in 
1708, Guerdon Saltonstall,^ the popular ex-min- 
ister of New London, was raised to the governor's 
chair, the time seemed ripe for a move to satisfy 
the widespread demand. In response to it, the 
May session of the General Court — 

from their own observation and the complaints of 
many others, being made sensible of the defects of the 
discipline of the churches of this government, aris- 
ing from want of a more explicit asserting of the 
rules given for that in the holy scriptures [saw fit] 
to order and require the ministers of the several 
churches in the several counties of this government 
to meet together at their respective countie towns, 
with such messengers as the churches to which they 
belong shall see cause to send with them on the last 
day of June next, there to consider and agree upon 
those methods and rules for the management of eccle- 
siastical discipline which shall be judged agreable 
and conformable to the word of God, and shall at the 
same meeting appoint two or more of their number to 

« Governor Saltonstall " was more inclined to synods and for- 
mularies than any other minister of that day in the New Eng- 
land colonies." His influence over the elerg-y was almost abso- 
lute. " The Saybrook Platform was stamped with his seal and 
was for the most part an embodiment of his views." — HoUister, 
Hist, of Conn. vol. ii, p. 585. 



136 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

meet together at Saybrook . . . where they shall 
compare the results of the ministers of the several 
counties, and out of which and from them to draw a 
form of ecclesiastical discipline, which by two or more 
persons delegated by them shall be offered this Court 
. . . and be confirmed by them.^* 

The bill was passed by the Upper House of 
the legislature and sent to a conference from the 
Lower, May 22, 1708. It became a law May 22. 
In the interim the words in italics were inserted 
in order to eliminate any possible loss of liberty 
to the churches and to protect them from a sys- 
tem of government, planned by ministers only, 
and enforced by the General Court.^^ 

No records of the preliminary meeting have 
come down to us, but the Preface of the Saybrook 
Platform reports such a meeting and that their 
delegates met at Saybrook, September 9, 1708. 
At this second convention, twelve ministers, of 
whom eight were trustees of Yale, and four mes- 
sengers were present. Their work, known as the 
Saybrook Platform, declares in its Preface that — 

we agree that the confession of faith owned & con- 
sented unto by the Elders and messengers of the 
Chhs assembled at Boston in New England, May 12, 
1680 being the Second Session of that Synod be Re- 
commended to the Hon^^ the Gen. Assembly of this 
Colony at the next Session for their Publick testimony 
thereto as the faith of the Chhs of this Colony. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 137 

We agree also that the Heads of Agreement as- 
sented to by the vnited Ministers formerly Called 
Presbyterian & Congregationall be observed by the 
Chhs throout this Colony. 

The work of the synod, including also a series 
of authoritative " Articles," was laid before the 
October session of the Court and received its ap- 
proval, the Court declaring its "great approbation 
of such a happy agreement " and ordaining " that 
all churches within this government that are or 
shall be thus united in doctrine, worship and dis- 
cipline, be and for the future shall be owned and 
acknowledged established by law." ^^ 

The period of transition was over. Connecticut 
had passed vfrom the individual consecration and 
democratic organization of the Cambridge Plat- 
form to the comprehensive membership of a par- 
ish system and to the authoritative councils, or 
ecclesiastical courts, provided for by the Saybrook 
Articles. A consideration of them as the main 
points of the Platform is next in order. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM 
A Government within a Government. 

The Saybrook Platform subdivides into a Con- 
fession of Faith, the Heads of Agreement, and 
the Fifteen Articles. 

The Confession of Faith is merely a recom- 
mendation of the Savoy Confession as reaffirmed 
by the Synod of Boston or the Reforming Synod 
of 1680. 

The Heads of Agreement are but a repetition 
of the articles that, under the same title, were 
passed in London, in 1691, by fourteen delegates 
from the Presbyterian and English Congrega- 
tional churches. Both parties to the Agreement 
had hoped thereby to establish more firmly their 
churches and to give them the strength and dig- 
nity of a strongly united body. The Heads of 
Agreement were drafted by three men. Increase 
Mather, the Massachusetts colonial agent to Eng- 
land, Matthew Mead, a Congregationalist, and 
John Hone, a Presbyterian, who in his earlier 
years and by training was a Congregationahst. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 139 

Naturally, between the influence of the framers 
and the necessity for including the two religious 
bodies, this platform inclined towards Congrega- 
tionalism, but equal necessity led it away from the 
freedom of the Cambridge Platform, after which 
it was patterned. 

In the Heads of Agreement, the composition 
of the church is defined according to Congrega- 
tional standards, as is also the election of its offi- 
cers. The definition of the powers of the church 
is not strictly Congregational, because initiative 
action and governing powers are intrusted to the 
eldership, while, to the brethren, there is given only 
the privilege of assenting to such measures as the 
elders may place before them. The membership 
in the church, as defined, is semi-Congregational ; 
i. e., in order to become members, persons must 
be " grounded in the Fundamental Doctrines 
of religion " and lead moral lives, but they are 
eligible to conununion only after the declaration 
of their desire " to walk together according to 
Gospel Rule." Concerning this declaration the 
statement is made that " different degrees of Ex- 
pliciteness shall in no way hinder such Churches 
from owning each other as Instituted Churches.^'' 
Furthermore, no one should be pressed to declare 
the time and manner of his conversion as proof 
of his fitness to be received as a communicant. 



140 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Such an account would, however, be welcome. 
With reference to parochial bounds, introduced 
into the primitive Congregationalism of New 
England, but always existing in the English Pres- 
byterian system, the Heads of Agreement de- 
clare them to be " not of Divine Right " but — 

for common Edification that church members should 
live near one another, nor ought they to forsake their 
church for another without its consent and recommen- 
dation. 

In respect to the ministry, the Heads of Agree- 
ment affirm that it should be learned and com- 
petent and approved ; that ordinarily, pastors 
should be considered as ministers only while they 
continue in office over the church that elected 
them to its ministry; that ordinarily, in their 
choosing and calling, advice should be sought 
from neighboring churches, and that they should 
be ordained with the aid of neighboring pastors. 
In the matter of installation into a new office of 
an elder, previously ordained, churches are to ex- 
ercise the right of individual judgment and of 
preference as to reordination. This same right 
of preference is to be exercised in deciding 
whether or not a church should support a ruling 
elder. The Heads of Agreement assert that in 
the intercommunion of churches there is to be 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 141 

no subordination among them, and that there 
ought to be frequent friendly consultations be- 
tween their " OfficersJ^ There are to be " Occa- 
sional Meetings of Ministers " of several churches 
to consult and advise upon " weighty and difficult 
cases," and to whose judgments, "particular 
Churches, their respective Elders and Members^ 
ought to have a reverential regard, and not dis- 
sent therefrom, without apparent grounds from 
the word of God." The Heads of Agreement 
command churches to yield obedience and support 
to the civil authority and to be ready at all times 
to give the magistrates an account of their affairs. 
The Heads of Agreement were the most liberal 
part of the Saybrook Platform, and were not con- 
sidered sufficiently authoritative. Accordingly, — 

for the Better Regulation of the Administration of 
Chh Discipline in Relation to all Cases Ecclesiastical 
both in Particular Chhs and In Councils to the full 
Determining and Executing of the Rules in all such 
cases,^"^ — 

were added certain resolutions, known as the 
"Fifteen Articles." They are in reality the 
Platform, for all that goes before them is but 
a reaffirmation of principles already accepted, 
and the new thing in the document, the ad- 
vance in ecclesiasticism, is the increased authority 



142 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

permitted and, later, enforced by these Fifteen 
Articles. 

The Articles affirm that power and discipline 
in connection with all cases of scandal that may 
arise within a church, ought, the brethren con- 
senting, to be lodged with the elder or elders ; 
and that in all difficult cases, the pastor should 
take advice of the elders of the neighboring 
churches before proceeding to censure or pass 
judgment. In order to facilitate both discipline 
and mutual oversight, the Articles provide that eld- 
ers and pastors are to be joined in Associations, 
meeting at least twice a year, to consult together 
upon questions of ministerial duty and upon mat- 
ters of mutual benefit to their churches. From 
these Associations, delegates were to be chosen 
annually to meet in one General Association, 
holding its session in the spring, at the time of 
the general elections. The Associations were to 
look after pastorless churches and to recommend 
candidates for the ministry. Up to this time a 
man's bachelor of arts degree had been considered 
sufficient guarantee that he would make a capable 
minister. Henceforth, there could no longer be 
complaint that " there was no uniform method 
of introducing candidates to the ministry nor 
sufficient opportunity for churches to confer to- 
gether in order to their seeing and acting harmo- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 143 

niously." ^^ In order that there should be no more 
confusion arising from calling councils against 
councils with their often conflicting judgments, 
the Articles formed Consociations, or unions of 
churches within certain limits, usually those of a 
county. These Consociations were to assist upon 
all great or important ecclesiastical occasions. 
They were to preside over all ordinations or in- 
stallations ; they were to decide upon the dis- 
missal of members, and upon all difficulties arising 
within any church within their district. If neces- 
sary, Consociations could be joined in council. 
Their decisions were to have the force of a judg- 
ment or sentence only when they were " approved 
by the major part of the elders present and by 
such a number of the messengers " — one or two 
from each church — as should constitute a ma- 
jority vote. A church could call upon its Con- 
sociation for advice before sentencing an offender, 
but the offender could not appeal to the Consocia- 
tion without the consent of his church. By these 
last provisions, authority and power tended still 
more to concentrate in the hands of the elders. 
The Fifteen Articles, though they did not make 
the judgments of the Consociations decisive, urged 
upon individual churches a reverent regard for 
them. 

The attitude of the churches towards these 



144 THE DEVELOPMENT OF KELIGIOUS 

Fifteen Articles varied, and it was already 
known in the Synod that such would be the case. 
Some churches would find them more palatable 
than others. Many were already converts to the 
Rev. Solomon Stoddard's insistent teaching that 
" a National Synod is the highest ecclesiastical 
authority upon earth," ^^ that every man must 
stand to the judgment of a National S3Tiod. 
Even five . years before the convening of the 
Synod at Saybrook, there had issued from a 
meeting of the Yale trustees,*^ " altogether the 
most representative ecclesiastical gathering in 
the colony," a circular letter which urged the 
Connecticut ministers to agree on some unifying 
confession of creed, and that such be recom- 
mended by the General Court to the considera- 
tion of the people. The immediate answer to the 
letter, if any, is unknown. Trumbull says that — 

the proposal was universally acceptable, and the 
churches and the ministers of the several counties 
met in a consociated council and gave their assent to 
the Westminster and Savoy Confessions of Faith.*'' 

It seems that they also " drew up certain rules 
of ecclesiastical discipline as preparatory to a 

« The charter for the college, together with an annual grant 
of three hundred dollars, was granted in 1701. None but minis- 
ters were to be trustees. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 145 

General Sjraod which they stiU had in contem- 
plation," ^^ but took no further step to obtain the 
approval of the Court. This first definite move 
toward the Saybrook system bore fruit when 
the Fifteen Articles were added to the Platform. 
Their authoritative tone was to satisfy those 
within the churches who preferred Presbyterian 
classes and synods, while their interpretation 
could be modified to please the adherents of 
a purer Congregationalism by reading them in 
the light of the Heads of Agreement which pre- 
ceded them. Of their possible purport two great 
authorities upon Congregationalism speak as fol- 
lows. Dr. Bacon writes : — 

The " Articles " by whomsoever penned, were ob- 
viously a compromise between the Presbyterian 
interest and the Congregational ; and like most 
compromises, they were (I do not say by design) of 
doubtful interpretation. Interpreted by a Presbyte- 
rian, they might seem to subject the Churches com- 
pletely to the authoritative government of classes or 
presbyteries under the name of consociations. Inter- 
preted by a Congregationalist, they might seem to 
provide for nothing more than a stated Council, in 
which neighboring Churches, voluntarily confederate, 
could consult together, and the proper fmiction of 
which should be not to speak imperatively, but, when 
regularly called, to "hold forth light" in cases of 
difficulty or perplexity.®^ 



146 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Dr. Dexter sums them up in the following 
words : — 

Taken by themselves, the fifteen articles were 
stringent enough to satisfy the most ardent High 
Churchmen among the Congregationalists of that 
day ; taken, however, in connection with the London 
document previously adopted, and by the spirit of 
which — apparently — they were always to be con- 
strued, their stringency became matter of differing 
judgment, so that what on the whole was their intent 
has never been settled to this day.^^ 

In accordance with the system of government 
outlined in the Platform, the churches of the 
colony were at once formed into five Associa- 
tions and five Consociations, one each in New 
Haven, New London, and Fairfield counties, and 
two in Hartford. In later years, new bodies were 
organized, as the other four Connecticut counties 
were set off from these original ones. The 
churches of the New Haven county Consociation, 
long cleaving to the purest Congregationalism, 
refused to adopt the Platform until they had 
recorded their liberal construction of it. Fair- 
field went to the other extreme, and put on record 
their acceptance of the Consociations as church 
courts. Hartford and New London accepted the 
Platform as a whole, as it came from the synod, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 147 

leaving to time the decision as to its loose or 
strict construction. 

A legislative act was necessary to make the 
Platform the legal constitution of the Congre- 
gational Establishment. Such an act immediately 
followed the presentation of the report by the 
committee, whom the Saybrook convention, in 
accordance with the Court's previous command, 
sent to the Assembly. Having examined the 
Platform, the Legislature declared its strong 
approval of such a happy agreement, and in 
October, 1708, enacted that — 

all the Churches within this government that are, 
and shall be thus united in doctrine, worship and 
discipline, be, and for the future shall be, owned and 
acknowledged, established by law : 

Provided always that nothing herein shall be in- 
tended or construed to hinder or prevent any society 
or church that is or shall be allowed by the laws of 
this government, who soberly differ or dissent from 
the united churches hereby established, from exer- 
cising worship and discipline in their own way, and 
according to their conscience. ^^ 

The purport of this proviso was to safeguard 
churches which had been approved according to 
the standards formerly set up by the Court, and 
also to prevent the Act of Establishment from 
seeming to contradict a " Toleration Act for 



148 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sober dissenters " from the colony cliurcli that 
had been passed at the preceding May session. 
Out of this proviso grew a misunderstanding in 
the Norwich church, which happens also to fur- 
nish a typical illustration of the difficulties some- 
times encountered in trying to collect a minister's 
salary. 

When Mr. Woodward, pastor of the Norwich 
church, read the act establishing the Saybrook 
Platform, he omitted the proviso. The Norwich 
deputies, who had been present at the passage 
of the act, immediately informed the people of 
the provision which the Court had made for the 
continuance of those churches of which it had 
previously approved and which might be re- 
luctant to adopt the stricter terms of the new 
system, at least until their value had been dem- 
onstrated. For this behavior, the deputies were 
censured by the pastor and by the majority 
of the church, who sided with him. Thereupon, 
the minority withdrew and for three months 
worshiped apart. Then the breach was healed, 
though seeds of discord remained. By 1714, 
six years later, they had germinated and had 
attained such development that it was very diffi- 
cult to collect the minister's salary. In Norwich, 
as elsewhere, there had formerly been a custom 
of collecting the ministerial rates together with 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 149 

those of the county. This custom had arisen 
because of difficulty in collecting the former, 
and in 1708 ^^ this practice was legalized, pro- 
vided that in each case the minister made formal 
application to have his rates thus collected. In 
the year 1714 and the following year the Gen- 
eral Court was obliged to issue a special order 
commanding the town of Norwich to fulfill its 
agreement with their minister and to pay his 
salary in fuU. The second year, the Court 
added the injunction that the money should be 
collected by the constables. But at the ses- 
sion following the order, the Norwich deputies 
informed the Court that, owing to differences ex- 
isting among their townsmen, they had not seen 
fit to urge its commands upon their people. 
Upon learning that Mr. Woodward's family 
were actually suffering, the Court appointed a 
date, and ordered the Norwich constables to pro- 
duce at the time set a receipt, signed by Mr. 
Woodward, and showing that his salary had 
been paid in full. If the receipt was not forth- 
coming at the appointed time, the secretary of 
the colony was empowered to issue, upon appli- 
cation, a warrant to distrain all or any unpaid 
portion of the minister's salary from the con- 
stables, and, also, any additional costs. This 
legislation seems to have had due effect, though 



150 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

feeling ran so liigh that, in the following year, 
it was decided to divide the church. When the 
two parishes were formed, Mr. Woodward re- 
tired, and the life of the divided church was 
continued under new ministers. 

From the adoption of the Saybrook Plat- 
form, the Connecticut churches were for many 
years preeminently Presbyterian in character. 
The terms Congregational and Presbyterian were 
often used interchangeably. As late as 1799, 
the Hartford North Association, speaking of the 
Connecticut churches, declared them " to con- 
tain the essentials of the Church of Scotland or 
Presbyterian Church in America." The Gen- 
eral Association in 1805 affirmed that " The 
Saybrook Platform is the constitution of the 
Presbyterian Church in Connecticut."" Whether 

" The Hartford North Association in 1799 gave " informa- 
tion to all whom it may concern that the Constitution of the 
Churches in the State of Connecticut, founded on the common 
usage and confession of faith, Heads of Agreement, Articles 
of discipline adopted at the earliest period of the settlement of 
the State, is not Congregational, but contains the essentials 
of the Church of Scotland, or Presbyterian Church in Amer- 
ica, particularly, as it gives a decisive power to Ecclesiastical 
Councils and a Consociation consisting of Ministers and Mes- 
sengers, or lay representatives, from the churches, is possessed 
of substantially the same authority as a Presbytery." The 
fifteen ministers at this meeting of the Hartford North Asso- 
ciation declared that there were in the state not more than ten 
or twelve Congregational churches, and that the majority were 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 151 

called by the one name or the other, Presbyte- 
rianized Congregationalism was the firmly estab- 
lished state religion, for under the Saybrook 
system the local independence of the churches 
was largely sacrificed. The system further ex- 
alted the eldership and the pastoral power. 
It replaced the sympathetic help and advisory 
assistance of neighboring churches by organ- 
ized associations and by the authority of coun- 
cils. 

In the new system the ecclesiastical machinery 
which, at first, brought peace and order, soon 
developed into a barren autonomy and gave rise 
to rigid formalism in religion, with its conse- 
quent baneful results upon the spiritual and 
moral character of the people. The Established 
Church had attained the height of its security 
and power, with exclusive privileges conferred 
by the legislature. That body had turned over 
to the " government within a government " the 
whole control of the church and of the religious 
life of the colony, and had endowed it with eccle- 
siastical councils which rapidly developed into 
ecclesiastical courts. 

not, and never had been, constituted according- to the Cam- 
bridge Platform, though they might, " loosely and vaguely, 
though improperly," be " termed Congregational Churches." 
— See MS. Records. Also G. L. Walker, First Church in Hart- 
ford, p. 358. 



152 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

" There was no formal coercive power ; but 
the public provision for the minister's support, 
and the withdrawal of it from recalcitrant mem- 
bers formed a coercive power of no mean effi- 
ciency." ^ 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERA- 
TION ACT 

They keep the word of promise to our ear and break it to 
our hope. — Macbeth, Act V, Sc. viii. 

The Connecticut General Court incorporated in 
the act establishing the Saybrook Platform the 
proviso — 

that nothing herein shall be intended or construed to 
hinder or prevent any Society or Church that is or 
shall be allowed by the laws of this government, who 
soberly differ or dissent from the United Churches 
hereby established from exercising worship and dis- 
cipline in their own way, according to their con- 
science. 

Here then was the measure of such religious 
toleration as could be expected. It appears a 
liberal measure. It was liberal in that day and 
generation, when men's minds were so firmly pos- 
sessed by the belief that civil order was closely 
dependent upon religious uniformity. The exact 
purport of the proviso, however, can best be 
gauged by considering it in connection with a 



154 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

legislative act that immediately preceded it, and 
by studying the conditions which prompted or 
enforced this earlier legislation, known as the 
Toleration Act of 1708." 

As conditions were at its passage, the proviso 
applied only to certain Congregational churches 
that, preferring the polity of the Cambridge 
Platform, were determined to adhere to it. In 
earlier years, these churches, with their exacting- 
test of regenerative experience, had constituted 
the majority. In later years, the Half- Way 
Covenant practice and Stoddardeanism had 
shifted the relative position of church parties. 
Now, the proviso represented that liberal-minded 

« "For the ease of such as soberly dissent from the way 
of worship and ministrie established by the ancient laws of 
this government, and still continuing-, that if any such persons 
shall at the countie court of the countie they belong to, 
qualifie themselves according to an act made in the first year 
of the late King William and Queen Mary, granting libertie of 
worshipping God in a way separate from that which is by law 
established, they shall enjoy the same libertie and privilege in 
any place in this colonic without let, or hindrance or molesta- 
tion whatsoever. Provided always that nothing herein shall 
be construed to the prejudice of the rights and privileges of 
the churches as by law established or to the excluding any per- 
son from paying any such minister or town dues as are or shall 
hereafter be due from him.'' ^ (The italics are mine. M. L. G.) 
Conn. Col. Hec. v, 50. 

Failure to comply with the law was punished by a heavy 
fine, and in default thereof, by heavy bail or by imprisonment 
tmtil the time for trial. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 155 

party within the church who would extend toler- 
ance to the minority who still clung to the out- 
grown convictions and principles of an earlier 
age. This tolerance was extended from a two- 
fold motive : for the reason just assigned, and 
because the government hoped, by permitting a 
liberal interpretation of the Saybrook Articles, 
to win over these tolerated Congregational 
churches. It trusted that the anticipated bene- 
fits, proceeding from the new order of church 
government, would further convince them of the 
superior advantages derivable from the Presby- 
terian or more authoritative rendering of the 
Saybrook instrument, and that through such a 
policy, the ready acceptance of the Saybrook 
Platform by all the churches in the colony would 
be secured. Furthermore, it would not do for 
the colony to make an important law, following 
the great English precedent of 1689 which had 
granted toleration to dissenters, and then, within 
six months, frame a constitution for its Estab- 
lished Church, so rigid that no room could be 
found in the colony for any fundamental differ- 
ences in faith or practice. Consequently, the 
proviso was made to include both tolerated Con- 
gregationalists and any dissenters who might in 
the future be permitted to organize their own 
churches, or, in the words of the Court, " any 



156 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Society or Church that is or shall be allowed by 
the laws of this government." Thus the proviso 
was practically forced into the October legisla- 
tion of the General Court by the passing of the 
Toleration Act at its spring session, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that its inclusion was in accord with 
the sentiment of the liberal party. 

Toleration Act and proviso notwithstanding, 
no rival church was desired at this time in Con- 
necticut. No rival creed was recognized. True, 
there were a few handfuls of dissenters scattered 
through the colony, but Congregationalism, with 
a strong tincture of Presbyterianism, was almost 
the unanimous choice of the people. It was 
largely outside pressure that had forced the pas- 
sage of the Toleration Act, even if it accounts for 
itself as a loyal following of the English prece- 
dent of 1689. Although it had always been un- 
derstood that the colonies should make no laws 
repugnant to the organic or to the common law 
of England, Connecticut was determined to pro- 
tect as much as possible her own approved church, 
to keep it free from the contamination not only 
of infidels and heretics, but also from Church-of- 
England dissenters and from all others. Accord- 
ingly she placed side by side upon her statute 
book a Toleration Act with a proviso in favor of 
her Established Church, and a Church platform 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 157 

with a proviso for " sober dissenters " there- 
from. 

The circumstances which led up to and en- 
forced the passage of the Toleration Act were 
many and varied. The motives were complex. 
Considerations religious, political, social, and 
economic entered into the problem which met 
the Connecticut legislators when they found their 
colony falling into disfavor with the King. This 
problem, resolved into its simplest terms, con- 
sisted in securing continued exemption from ex- 
ternal interference. If Connecticut could retain 
the King's approval, she could prevent the in- 
trigues of her enemies at the English court and 
could control the situation in the colony, what- 
ever its aspects, secular or religious. And with 
reference to the latter, she would stiU be able to 
exalt her Establishment and to keep dissenters, 
however they might increase in kinds or numbers, 
in a properly subordinated position. 

In order to obtain a grasp of the situation 
within the colony at the time when its govern- 
ment concluded that the passing of the Toleration 
Act would be politic, it is necessary to examine 
the status of the dissenters there. Of these there 
were four classes, the Quakers or Society of 
Friends, 'the Episcopalians, the Baptists, and the 
Rogerines. Of these, the Quakers and the Epis- 



158 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

copalians were the first to make the Connecticut 
government forcibly realize that, if she interfered 
with what they believed to be their rights, there 
would probably have to be a settlement with the 
home government. But as the efforts of these 
sects to interest the English government in their 
behalf run parallel with and mix themselves up 
with other complaints against Connecticut, it will 
make the history of the times clearer if the early 
story of the Baptists and Rogerines -is first told. 
The Baptists early appeared in New England, 
but it was not until 1665 that Massachusetts 
permitted their organization into churches, and 
not until 1700, only eight years before the 
Saybrook Platform, that Cotton Mather wrote 
of them, "We are willing to acknowledge for 
our brethren as many of them as are willing to 
be acknowledged." In her dislike of them, Mas- 
sachusetts had the full sympathy of Connecticut. 
And it was with great dissatisfaction that the 
authorities of the latter colony saw these dissent- 
ers, early in the eighteenth century, crossing the 
Rhode Island boundary to settle within her terri- 
tory. Accordingly, in 1704, the General Court 
of Connecticut refused them permission to incor- 
porate in church estate. When in the following 
year, in spite of the legislature's refusal, they 
organized a church at Groton under Valentine 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 159 

Wightman," the Assembly proceeded to inflict 
tlie full penalties of the law. While the Baptists 
had cheerfully paid all secular taxes, they had 
made themselves liable to fines and imprison- 
ments by their refusal, on the ground of con- 
science, to pay the ecclesiastical ones, and, as they 
continued to refuse, fines and imprisonment and 
even flogging became their portion. Governor 
Saltonstall, mild in his personal attitude toward 
the three other groups of dissenters, thoroughly 
disapproved of the Baptists, seeming to fear 
their growing influence in New England and 
their increasing importance in the mother coun- 
try. He believed in a policy of restriction and 
oppression toward the mere handful of them 
that had settled within his jurisdiction. 

Apart from the main body of the Baptists, 
there were in Connecticut a number of Seventh- 

« Later in 1707, Mr. Wig-htman and Mr. John Bulkley, Con- 
gregationalist minister of Colchester, by permission of the 
authorities, who were troubled by the rumor that the Baptists 
and Seventh-day Baptists were about to begin proselytizing in 
earnest in Connecticut, entered into a public debate as to the 
merits of their respective religious beliefs. Not much came of 
it to the Congregationalists, who had expected to see Mr. 
Wightman's arguments annihilated, while the Baptists had a 
fine opportunity to publish broadcast their views. Such a dis- 
cussion was steadily forbidden Browne and Barrowe in 1590. 
A century had developed sufficient toleration to make interest- 
ing, as well as permissible, a public discussion of divergent 
beliefs. 



160 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

day Baptists and Kogerine Baptists or Eogerine 
Quakers. There were a very few of them, — not 
more than a dozen in 1680.^ Setting aside the 
earliest persecution of the Quakers, these Roger- 
ines were the first dissenters to fall under the dis- 
pleasure of the Connecticut authorities. They 
were the first to be systematically fined, whipped, 
and imprisoned for conducting themselves con- 
trary to the laws for the support and honor of 
the Connecticut Establishment. For this reason, 
though they were weak in numbers and often an 
exasperating set of fanatics, they deserve a hear- 
ing. Their persecution began about 1677, while 

« The report to the Commission of Trade and Foreign 
Plantations made in 1680 gave : 

" 26 Answ. Our people in this colony are some strict Con- 
gregational men, others more large Congregational men, and 
some moderate Presbyterians, and take the Congregational men 
of both sorts, they are the greatest part of the people in the 
colony. 

*' There are 4 or 5 Seven-day men, in our Colony, and about 
so many Quakers. 

" 17 Answ. (1) Great care is taken for the instruction of ye 
people in ye X'tian religion, by ministers catechising of them 
and preaching to them twice every Sabbath daye and sometimes 
on lecture dayes ; and so by masters of f amalayes instructing 
and catechising the children and servants being so required by 
law. In our corporation there are twenty-six towns and twenty- 
one churches. There is in every town in the colony a settled 
minister except in two towns newly begun." — This was equiv- 
alent to one minister to 460 persons, or to about 90 families. 
— Conn. Col. Bee. iii, 300. Trumbull's Hist, of Conn, i, 397. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 161 

these people were chiefly resident in New London 
and the Seventh-day men were mostly members of 
the Rogers family. Later, the Rogerines spread 
to Norwich and Lebanon and their immediate 
vicinity. 

This sect of Rogerines arose from the inter- 
course through trade of two brothers, John and 
James Rogers of New London, with the Sabba- 
tarians or Seventh-day Baptists of Rhode Island. 
These brothers were baptized in 1674 and 1675, 
and their parents in the following year. All were 
received as members of the Seventh-day church 
at Newport. This did not trouble the Connecticut 
authorities, who appear not to have interfered 
with the converts until they committed a flagrant 
offense and put public dishonor upon the colony 
church; as in 1677, when elders of the Rhode 
Island church arrived in New London to baptize 
the wife of Joseph Rogers, another brother of the 
first two converts. The elders selected for their 
baptismal ceremony a quiet spot about two miles 
from the town. This did not suit John Rogers, 
who insisted that the town was the only proper 
place, and led the little procession into it. Mr. 
Hiscox, one of the elders, was seized while preach- 
ing and carried before the magistrates, but was 
soon released. Deprived of their leader, the Sab- 
batarians withdrew to another place, and John 



162 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Kogers, arrogating to himself the office of elder, 
performed the baptismal service. From this 
time forth he began to draw disciples to himself. 
When he pushed his personal opinions too far, the 
Newport church attempted to discipline both him 
and his following, but, this attempt failing, the 
Kogerines became henceforth a distinct sect. 

The Kogerines, though strictly orthodox in the 
fundamental articles of the Christian faith, were 
opposed by the Connecticut magistrates as 
teachers of doctrines tending to undermine reli- 
gion, as a persistently rebellious sect, and as noto- 
rious breakers of the peace. In faith and practice, 
these Eogerines bore some resemblance to the 
Baptists and also to the Quakers. Hence, they 
were often called Eogerine-Baptists or Eogerine- 
Quakers. Like the earlier Baptists and the 
Quakers, they believed it wrong to take an oath. 
They differed from the Congregationalists chiefly 
in their form of administering baptism and the 
Lord's supper and in their opposition to any paid 
ministry. Kogers also claimed that there were 
certain tests of personal regeneration which the 
Congregationalists denied. John Bolles, one of 
the later leaders of the sect, declared the Congre- 
gational Sunday to be " a great Idol in this 
Country, and all the Religion built on the Holi- 
ness of the pretended Sabbath is Hypocrisy and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 163 

further that it is contrary to Scripture, for Chris- 
tians to exercise Authority over one another in 
matters of Keligion." ^^ Kogers, with less dignity 
and more pugnaciousness, called the authorities 
" the scarlet beast " and the Establishment a 
" harlot," hurling scriptural texts with rankling, 
exasperating abusiveness in his determination to 
prove her customs evil and anti-Christian. Not 
content with such railing, the Rogerines deter- 
mined to show no respect to their adversaries' 
opinions and worship. Thus, while maintaining 
that there should be no public worship, Rogers, 
after his separation from the Seventh-day Bap- 
tists, perversely chose Sunday as the day most 
convenient for the Rogerines to hold their meet- 
ings. They not only exhorted and testified in the 
streets, but forced their way into the churches, 
pestering the ministers to argue disputed points. 
They offended in another way, for, according to 
the colony law, they profaned the Sabbath by 
working, claiming that, as all days were holy, all 
were alike good for work. Fines and imprison- 
ment began in 1677. They were continued in 
the hope, held by the authorities, that they could 
suppress the Rogerines by exactions which should 
melt away their estates. Sometimes these pen- 
alties were unjust, as when John Rogers could 
rightly claim that he was sentenced without bene- 



164 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

fit of jury, and, at another, that the authorities had 
seized his son's cattle to settle the father's fines. 
John BoUes pleaded against the injustice of for- 
cing men " to pay Money for his (the minister's) 
preaching when they did not hear him and pro- 
fessed it was against their Consciences." ^^ But 
such a plea was many, many years in advance of 
his time. The Rogerines, important, in their own 
estimate, as called of God, and angered by oppo- 
sition, seized upon every scriptural passage that 
bade them exhort and testify, feeling it their duty 
to do so both in season and out. Had they been 
willing to give up this practice in public, they 
would probably have been left in comparative 
peace, for Governor Saltonstall wrote to Rogers 
offering him protection for his followers if they 
would consent to give up " testifying " and would 
hold their services quietly and privately. Rogers 
refused upon the ground that he had a right to 
use the colony churches for his preaching, since 
he and his people were obliged to contribute to 
their maintenance. This was logical, but not ac- 
ceptable to the Connecticut magistrates, who con- 
tinued to cool the enthusiasm of the Rogerines by 
occasional heavy penalties, and to look upon them 
as a set of fanatics, doomed to self -extinction. 

The attitude of the Connecticut authorities 
at this time toward the Quakers, or Society of 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 165 

Friends, was quite different from that assumed 
toward the Baptists and Roger ines. A retro- 
spect of their history in the colony shows them 
to have been the earliest dissenters, and also the 
ones to whom concessions, though only tempo- 
rary, were first made. Previous to the Restora- 
tion, the Quakers were the only dissenters with 
whom Connecticut had to deal. They appeared in 
Massachusetts in 1655, and in the following year 
New Haven colony found no laws could be too 
severe for the " cursed sect of the Quakers." 
The General Court of Connecticut seconded the 
efforts of both New Haven and Massachusetts 
to exclude the obnoxious and determined sect, 
but it soon decided that its fears had been greatly 
exaggerated, and that mild laws and town legis- 
lation were sufficient. Accordingly, town officers 
were instructed to prevent Quakers settling in 
the colony, to forbid their books and writings, 
and to break up their meetings. It was forbid- 
den, however, to lay upon them a fine of more 
than ten pounds or, under any circumstances, the 
death penalty. 

While New Haven whipped, branded, and 
transported Quakers,^ Connecticut mildly en- 

" Humphrey Norton in the New Haven colony was whipped 
severely, burnt in the hand with the letter "H" for heretic, 
and banished for being- a Quaker. The next year, for testifying- 
against the treatment of Norton, William Bond, Mary Dyer, and 



166 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

forced her laws against them,^^ and how mildly 
the following incidents will show. In 1658, John 
Kous and John Copeland, traveling preachers, 
reached Hartford. They were allowed to hold a 
discussion in the presence of the governor and 
magistrates upon " God is a Spirit." At its 
close, they were courteously informed that the 
laws of the colony forbade their remaining in 
it, and were requested to continue without further 
delay their journey into Ehode Island. This 
request was heeded, but while on their way, to 
quote Rous, " The Lord gave us no small do- 
minion." It would seem as if the wise Quaker 
had taken the benefit of the law which forbade 
his remaining " more than fifteen days in a town," 
and, also, of the friendly curiosity of the people 
along his route. Rous further testified in behalf 
of Connecticut that "Among all the colonies 
found we not like moderation as this ; most of the 
magistrates being more noble than those of the 
others." ^^ A short time after Rous's visit, two 
Quakers, who persisted in holding services, were 
arrested and banished." Still later, two women 

Mary Whetherstead were apprehended by the same authorities, 
and forcibly carried back to Rhode Island. — H. Rogers, Mary 
Dyer, p. 36. For the Quaker Laws of both colonies see Note 
69. 

« The notorious William Ledra of later Massachusetts fame 
was one of these. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 167 

who attempted to conduct services in Hartford 
met with similar treatment, of whom their histo- 
rian records: "Except that some extra apparel 
which they took with them was sold by the jaoler 
to pay his fee, no act of persecution befell them 
at Hartford." ^^ As late as 1676, when the Con- 
gregationalists and the constables of New London, 
with great violence, broke up a Friends' meeting, 
held by William Edmund son, he tells us that 
" the sober people were offended at them," ^^ 
and that on the following Sunday, at " New 
Hartford " (Hartford), after the regular morn- 
ing service, he was allowed to speak unhin- 
dered. The same afternoon, when he attempted 
to speak in another meeting-house, the officers, 
urged on by the minister, " haled me," he writes, 
" out of the worship-house, and hurt my arm so 
that it bled." When he asked them if they 
thought that was the right treatment of a man 
faint from fasting aU day, they, with excuses for 
the conduct of the minister and the magistrates, 
hurried him to an inn. There the people were 
allowed to listen to his discourse, and, the next 
morning, he was bidden to go freely on his way. 
Most of the Connecticut Quakers were in the 
border towns. Few, if any, organized societies 
were formed in Connecticut until about the time 
of the Revolution. Their scattered converts were 



4 



i 
168 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 



ministered to by traveling preachers, and, where 
possible, members would cross the boundaries to 
attend the Quarterly or Monthly Meetings in 
neighboring Rhode Island, or possibly Massa- 
chusetts, or on Long Island. These dissenters 
had quickly perceived the strength of union, and 
as early as 1661 the Rhode Island Yearly Meet- 
ing had been established, with its system of sub- 
ordinate Quarterly and Monthly Meetings. Soon 
after. Yearly Meetings at Philadelphia brought 
reports from the southern and middle colonies. 
Those at Flushing, Long Island, collected news 
of converts from New York as far east as the 
Connecticut River, while the Yearly Meeting at 
Newport, Rhode Island, heard from all members 
east of that river. The custom of exchanging 
yearly letters, giving the gist of these three 
annual meetings, was soon instituted. After the 
establishment of the London Yearly Meeting, the 
frequent exchange of letters with the colonial 
Quakers, begun in 1662, was reinforced by the 
exchauge of English and American preachers. 
By similar means, the whole Society the world 
over was bound closely together. Their common 
interests were guarded, and every infraction of 
their liberties known. If in any of the colonies, 
as in Connecticut, they were oppressed for their 
refusal to pay ecclesiastical taxes and to bear 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 169 

arms, the facts were known in England. Secular 
taxes they cheerfully met, but others were against 
their conscience. They were excellent citizens, 
and they were everywhere friendly with the 
Indians. Because of this friendship, and because 
the Connecticut colony desired the good offices 
of the Rhode Island authorities during the dan- 
gerous King Philip's War, the General Court 
had decided to show favor to the few Quakers 
who were then within the colony. Accordingly, 
in 1675, a bill was passed temporarily releasing 
the Quakers from fines for absence from public 
worship, provided " that they did not gather 
into assemblies within the colony or make any 
disturbance." How long this law was operative 
is uncertain, but probably until about 1702. It, 
is omitted in the revision of the laws of that year, 
and Gough, in his " History of the People called 
Quakers," says that the persecuting spirit died 
away, but was renewed by Connecticut in 1702.*^ 
We know some of the causes that probably led 
to its revival, such as the extravagances of the 
Rogerines, the increase of the Baptists, and the 
general feeling that the Congregational churches 
were inherently weak among themselves before 

" This year a law was passed requiring every person to care- 
fully apply himself on the Lord's day to the duties of religion. 
See New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers^ ii, 399. 



170 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

this threatening increase of external foes. More- 
over, in this same year, there began a very def- 
inite propaganda in behalf of an American 
episcopate. The attempt to revive persecution 
against the Quakers was unfortunate. They 
believed in liberty of conscience as a natural, 
inalienable right, and its practical exercise they 
meant to have. Their leaders were constant in 
their loyal addresses and dignified petitions to 
the throne. The great English Toleration Act 
had befriended them, and the Act of 1693 had, 
by substituting affirmation for oath, allowed 
them to take full advantage of the toleration 
measure. Such religious liberty as they enjoyed 
in England, they meant to possess in England's 
colonies ; and when Connecticut, in 1702, again 
put on the thumb-screws of persecution, these 
dissenters at once sent a protest across the seas. 
Their great leader, WilHam Penn, was again in 
favor at court and with the Queen, who, in Privy 
Council, October 11, 17 05, favorably heard their 
petition and promptly annulled the Connecticut 
law of 1657 against " Heretics, Infidels and 
Quakers," declaring it void and repealed. " The 
repealing of this Act put a final period to the 
persecuting of Quakers in New England." ^^ To 
be more exact, it put an end to persecution, but 
not to occasional fines or to legalized taxes which 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 171 

the Quakers stiU considered unjust. But as Con- 
necticut had many serious problems on her hands 
at this time, she thought it prudent to follow the 
lead of the Crown, and repealed the law of 1657, 
in so far as it applied to the Quakers. 

The year that the Quakers scored this victory, 
the Episcopalians lodged with the home govern- 
ment a serious complaint of the intolerance that 
Connecticut showed towards members of the 
Church of England. They complained that — 
they have made a law y* no christians who are not 
of their community, shall meet to worship God, or 
have a minister without lycence from their Assem- 
bly ; which law even extends to y® Church of England, 
as well as other professions tolerated in England/'' 

This was not the first time that such a complaint 
had been carried to England. As early as 1665 '^ 

" Articles o f Law Book of Conn, printed 1670. " It 
Misdemeanor vs. is ordered that when the ministry of the 
Connecticut, July, word is established according to the Gos- 
1665. "They deny pel, throug"hout this Colony, every person 
to the inhabitants shall duly resort and attend thereunto re- 
the exercise of the spectively upon the Lord's day, upon pub- 
religion of the lie fast days and days of thanksgiving as 
church of Eng- are generally kept by appointment of au- 
land ; arbitrarily thority ; and any person . . . without neces- 
fining those who sary cause, withdrawing himself from the 
refuse to come to public ministry of the word, he shall for- 
their congrega- feit for his absence from every such meet- 
tional ass em- ing five shillings." — Conn. Col. Bee. iii, 
blies." 294. 



172 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

it had been made, within a year after Connecti- 
cut had satisfied the Commissioners of Charles 
II, sending them home convinced that the Church 
of England services would be allowed in the col- 
ony as soon as there were settlers who desired 
them." As there were no Episcopalians in the 
colony then, nor for nearly thirty years after- 
wards, and as Connecticut was in high favor 
with the Stuarts, little heed was paid to the 
complaint at the time, nor until long years after- 
wards, when it was coupled with graver offenses. 
Back of the personal affront to the sovereign 
in the persecution or oppression of members of 
the Church of England, there were graver causes 
of offense such as the Crown regarded as mistakes, 
or even misdemeanors. For many years Con- 
necticut had been virtually an independent and 
sovereign state within her own borders. Her 
charter was a most liberal one. She had sought 
approval for it from the sovereigns, William and. 
Mary, and, while she had been unable to obtain 
for it the crown's expressed approval, she had 

« They reported that the colony would " not hinder any from 
enjoying the sacraments and using the common prayer book, 
provided that they hinder not the maintenance of the public 
minister." — Hutchinson, Hist, of Mass., p^ 412. 

Dr. Beardsley suggests that influential citizens may have 
assured them that the laws would be modified to accommodate 
Episcopalians. — E. E, Beardsley, Hist, of the Episcopal Church, 
i, p. 116. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 173 

secured from the best legal talent a judgment 
declaring it still valid. She continued to be 
practically exempt from external interference 
with her domestic policy for a number of years 
after the Revolution of 1688, yet from that time 
on there was always at the English court a 
party, at first largely influenced by Sir Edmund 
Andros and his following, who were either jeal- 
ous of Connecticut's charter or envious of her 
prosperity. They were always scheming and 
ready to prejudice the king against his colony, 
or to antagonize the Board of Trade. 

Within her own borders, Connecticut was 
peaceful, prosperous, and contented. For the 
most part, she was free from the harassing danger 
of Indian war. She readily contributed her share 
for the common defense of the colonies, and sent 
her loyal quotas to fight for England's territorial 
claims. For many years, Connecticut was shrewd 
enough to steer clear of the disastrous inflation 
of paper currency which overtook her sister col- 
onies. Many strangers were attracted by her 
prosperity, so that, notwithstanding frequent emi- 
grations of her people, she trebled her popula- 
tion about once in twenty years all through the 
first century of her existence.*^ With this increas- 

« Population in 1656, 800 ; 1665, 9000 ; 1670-80, 10,000- 
14,000 J 1689, 17,000-20,000; 1730, approximately, 50,000; 



174 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ing population came, in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, members of the Church of 
England, who settled in Stratford and in the 
towns adjacent to New York." They quickly 
found that their previous impressions were erro- 
neous, and that Connecticut would not tolerate 
their religious services. Consequently, a report 
of the religious condition in Connecticut was 
made in England, in 1702, at about the time the 
Quakers complained of renewed persecution and 
at a time when the enemies of the colony were 
extremely active in charging her with miscon- 
duct. 

A report of Connecticut's ecclesiastical consti- 
tution and of her oppression of dissenters was 
made to the Bishop of London by John Talbot, 
who, with George Keith, had traveled through 
Connecticut on his way from New York to 
Boston. These men were missionary priests of 
the Church of England. In New London, Gov- 
ernor Saltonstall, then the minister of that town, 

1756, 130,000 ; 1761, 145,000; 1776, 200,000; 1780, 237,946.— 
F. B. Dexter, Estimates of the Population of the American 
Colonies, in American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, 2d 
series, vol. 5. 

« Up to 1680, there was only one Episcopal clergyman in 
New England, Father Jordan, of Portsmouth, N. H. There 
was an Episcopal clergyman at the fort in New York, and out- 
side of Virginia and Maryland only two others in North Amer- 
ica. There were a few Episcopal families in Stratford in 1690. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 175 

knowing that there were a few Churcli-of -England 
men in the place, had met the travelers, " civilly 
entertained them at his house," and "invited 
them to preach in his church." ^^ The Governor 
might not, the magistrates certainly did not, feel 
so kindly disposed toward Talbot a year or so 
later, when it was found that, upon his return 
to New York, he had written home to his supe- 
riors in England, earnestly advocating an Ameri- 
can episcopate. True, he urged that the American 
bishop should have ecclesiastical powers only, 
and that those ecclesiastico-civil in character, 
such as the probating of wills, granting of mar- 
riage licenses, and the presentation of livings, 
should remain in the hands of the colonial gov- 
ernors. But the Connecticut authorities were 
not forgetful of Laud's purpose in 1638 to 
appoint a bishop over New England, and its frus- 
tration by the political unrest at home. They 
recalled that the revival of such a project had 
floated as a rumor about those royal commis- 
sioners of 1664 to whom they had given such 
satisfactory, if evasive, answers. Moreover, an 
Order in Council of 1685, of which there is ex- 
ternal evidence, though the order itself is not 
recorded, had vested ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
over the colonies in the Bishop of London.^^ 
Connecticut knew also that four years later, in 



176 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

1689 (the year that Episcopacy erected King's 
Chapel, Boston, with its royal endowment of 
.£100 per year), the first commissary had been 
dispatched to Virginia to superintend the 
churches there. The Crown, as yet, had deemed 
it unwise to thrust an episcopate upon its dissent- 
ing colonies, and, except for a short time before 
Queen Anne's death, it was to take no interest 
in the plans for the American episcopate until 
some forty years later, when the King thought to 
discern in it some pohtical advantage. But early 
in 1700, when complaints were lodged against 
Connecticut, there was a strong party within the 
English Church itself who were most anxious 
to see the episcopal bond between the mother 
country and her colonies strengthened. For this 
purpose, they had sent to America, in 1695, the 
Reverend Thomas Bray to report upon the condi- 
tions and churchly sentiment within the colonies. 
His report was published under the title, " A 
Memorial representing the State of Religion 
in the Continent of North America." It was an 
appeal for episcopal oversight, and resulted in the 
formation in England, in 1701, of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
To this organization belonged aU the English 
bishops with all their influential following. The 
Society regularly maintained missionary churches 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 177 

and missionary priests throughout the colonies. 
Candidates for this priesthood were required to 
submit to a thorough examination as to their 
fitness. Before sailing, they were required to 
report to the Bishop of London as their Diocesan 
and to the Archbishop of Canterbury as their 
Metropolitan. They were required to send full 
semi-annual reports of their work and to include 
in them any other information that promised to 
be of interest or advantage to the Society. John 
Talbot and George Keith were two of these mis- 
sionaries. 

Talbot's appeal for the American episcopate 
was seconded in 1705 by fourteen clergymen 
from the middle colonies who convened at Bur- 
lington, N. J., to frame a petition to the Eng- 
lish archbishop and bishops. In it they set 
forth the necessity in America of a bishop to 
ordain and to supply other ecclesiastical needs. 
The petitioners added that a bishop was also 
necessary to counteract "the inconveniences 
which the church labors under by the influ- 
ence which seditious men's counsels have upon 
the public administration and the opposition 
which they make to the good inclinations of well- 
affected persons." ^'^ In this appeal for a bishop 
stress was laid upon the cost and dangers of a 
trip to England for ordination,^^ and also to the 



178 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

frequent loss of converts from the independent 
ministry because of the lack of ordination privi- 
leges in America. These references, and also 
that to the " counsel of seditious men," could 
not be agreeable to large numbers of dissenting 
colonists. They would not be viewed with favor 
in Connecticut, where, by 1705, Episcopalians 
had become so numerous that a wealthy New 
Yorker, Colonel Heathcote by name, and a man 
thoroughly acquainted with his New England 
neighbor, undertook to look after the Church-of- 
England men as unfortunate brethren of a com- 
mon faith. He appealed to the English Society 
for the Propagating " of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts to extend its missions into Connecticut. 
He asked that Eector Muirson be stationed 
at Eye, New York. Colonel Heathcote's idea 
was: — 

to first plant the church securely in Westchester on 
the border of Connecticut ; and secondly, from that 
point to act upon Connecticut, which was wholly 
Puritan and withal not a little bigoted and unchari- 
table. 

Naturally, whatever of tolerance the Connecticut 
people might have shown two traveling preach- 
ers would turn to opposition when they saw the 
deliberate and well-organized attempt of this 

a Or " Propagation," — as it is most frequently called. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 179 

proselyting church, this old enemy of their fore- 
fathers, to invade their colony and undermine 
their own Establishment. Consequently, when, 
in company with Mr. Muirson, Colonel Heath- 
cote began itinerating through southwestern Con- 
necticut, ministers and magistrates frequently 
opposed and threatened them. The people occa- 
sionally welcomed them. They did not object 
to hear and to criticise the strangers, and were 
sometimes willing to have their good neighbors, 
if they chanced to be Church-of-England men, 
enjoy the ministrations of these passing visitors. 
In some places, however, the civil officers went 
so far as to go about among the people, even from 
house to house, to dissuade them from attend- 
ing Mr. Muirson's services,*^ and, at Fairfield, 

« Mr. Muirson's report after his first visit to Stratford was 
that he had had " a very numerous congregation both fore- 
noon and afternoon." He continues, " I baptized about twenty- 
four persons the same day. . . . "The Independents threat- 
ened me and all who were instrumental in bringing me thither, 
with prison and hard usage. They are very mnch incensed to 
see the Church (Rome's sister, as they ignorantly call her) is 
likely to gain ground among 'em, and use all stratagem they 
can invent to defeat my enterprise." — Church Doc. Conn., i, 
p. 17. 

Colonel Heathcote wrote, "The Ministers are very uneasy 
at our coming amongst them, and abundance of pains were 
taken to persuade and terrify the people from hearing Mr. 
Muirson, but it availed nothing ; " — not even the threat to 
jail the rector for holding services contrary to the colony law 



180 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the meeting-house was closed lest it should be 
"defiled by idolatrous worship and supersti- 
tious ceremonies." ^^ The Episcopalians them- 
selves later acknowledged that, until 1709, they 
suffered little persecution beyond " that of the 
tongue." " When they were not permitted to 
organize churches, and were forced to pay taxes 
for the support of Congregationalism, they com- 
plained bitterly to their friends in England, and 
such oppression was listed among the many other 
misdemeanors, which, at this time, were cited 
against the former " dutiful colony of Connecti- 
cut." 

One of the schemes that Connecticut's enemies 
sought to carry out, both for their own advance- 
ment, and as a proposed punishment for an 
unruly colony, was a consolidation of the New 
England provinces under a royal governor. This 
consolidation was approached when Governor 
Fletcher of New York was appointed military 
chief of Connecticut. His attempt, in 1693, to 
enforce his military authority over Connecticut 
troops engaged in protecting the northern fron- 
tier, resulted in his failure, and in his angry 

which the magistrates had read to him at his lodgings. — 
Church Doc. Conn., i, p. 20. 

o " We received no persecution than that of the tongue 
until December, 1709." — I6ic?., i, p. 42. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 181 

report to the home authorities of Connecticut's 
insubordination and disloyalty. The colony at 
great expense sent Major Fitz-John Winthrop 
to England to answer these charges. He was 
successful in proving that Connecticut had not 
exceeded her charter rights in her determination 
to appoint her own military officers ; that, in the 
wars, she had faithfully contributed her share to 
the common defense ; and moreover, that it was 
essential that she should have the immediate 
control of her own troops to quell internal dis- 
order, should it arise, or to repel the sudden 
approach of an enemy upon her exposed borders. 
Major Winthrop also succeeded in having the 
colony's military obligations defined as the fur- 
nishing to the common defense of a number of 
her militia, proportionate to her population and 
to be under their own officers, and in war time 
a further draft of a hundred and twenty men to 
be under the direct control of the governor of 
New York. Notwithstanding the splendid suc- 
cess of Winthrop's mission, this same charge of 
insubordination was repeated in a long and later 
list of grievances against the colony. 

The consolidation scheme was revived by the 
appointment of Governor Bellomont over New 
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, and as military head of Ehode Island and 



182 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Connecticut; but tlie governor never tried to 
enforce his authority in Connecticut. In 1701 
and 1706, bills aiming at this proposed consoli- 
dation were introduced into Parliament. That 
of 1701 failed of consideration from " short- 
ness of time and multiplicity of issues." In 
1704 an attempt was made to secure the ap- 
pointment of a royal governor over Connecticut 
through an Order in Council, but that body 
preferred to leave the matter to Parliament, — 
hence the bill of 1706 favoring consolidation 
which failed of passage in the Lords. It failed 
largely because of the energy and eloquence of 
Sir Henry Ashurst, the Connecticut agent. 

Sir Henry also suGceeded in getting a copy 
of the various charges against the colony, which 
were thought to justify annulling her charter, 
and in obtaining a grant of time to submit them 
to the Connecticut General Court for a reply. 
The colony found that it was charged with en- 
couraging violations of the Navigation Laws ; 
with holding in contempt the Courts of Admi- 
ralty ; with failing to furnish troops and to place 
them under officers of the Crown ; with executing 
capital punishment without any authority in her 
charter ; with encouraging manufactures, con- 
trary to the known wishes of the Crown ; with 
irregular and unjust court proceedings ; with 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 183 

treating contumaciously the royal commissioners 
sent to settle tlie Mohegan land controversy ; 
with injustice to the Quakers ; with forbidding 
services of the Church of England ; and with 
disallowing appeals to England. These were the 
more important complaints. In behalf of the 
colony, Sir Henry appeared before the Privy 
Council, and in able argument showed that 
many of the charges were without foundation ; 
that some of the colony's acts which were com- 
plained of as unlawful were well within her 
charter privileges ; and that the decisions of her 
courts, far from being illegal, had, in nearly 
every case, when brought to the attention of the 
English government, been approved by it. Fur- 
ther than this, the Connecticut agent obtained a 
stay in the proceedings of the Mohegan case," 

« The Mohegan Indians had sold certain lands to the colony 
in 1659, Major John Mason acting as agent. These lands had 
been conveyed to English proprietors. John Mason, the 
major's grandson, representing his own and other interests, 
pretended that both his grandfather and the Indians had been 
overreached and wronged by the colony in the transaction ; 
that the colony had taken more land than agreed upon from 
the Indians, and had also seized some that belonged by private 
purchase to the Mason heirs. For the sake of peace and the 
credit of magnanimity, the government offered to the chief, 
Owaneco, who represented the Indians, to pay them again for 
the land, but Mason and his party resolved to prevent such a 
settlement. One of them went to England with a false report 
of extortion practiced upon the savages, and a commission was 



184 THE DEVELOPMENT OF KELIGIOUS 

though it was soon reopened and seriously men- 
aced the colony until the settlement in her favor 
in 1743. In the famous Liveen or Hallam case, 
Connecticut opposed an appeal to the Crown, 
because such an appeal would give the Privy 
Council the right to interpret the charter and 
pass upon the colony laws.'^ Though Sir Henry 

sent out to investigate. Connecticut was willing to answer the 
commissioners if they sought facts for a report, but when they 
assumed the right to decide the question judicially, the colony 
could only protest against their pretensions. The commission- 
ers adjudged the land in dispute to the Indians and the Mason 
party, and charged the colony nearly £600 and costs. The 
colony appealed to the Crown and won the case in 1743 ; but 
it was again appealed by Mason, and in this fashion dragged 
along until after the Revolution, when the Indians were con- 
tent to accept the reservation allotted by the State to them. 
— C. W. Bowen, Boundary Disputes^ pp. 25-27. 

« John Liveen of New London in 1689 left property to the 
" ministry of the town." Major Fitz- John Winthr op and his 
brother-in-law Edward Palmes were executors. Major Win- 
throp was absent with the army on the northern frontier, but 
made no objection to the probating of the will at a special 
court in New London in 1689. This probating Major Palmes, 
a former friend of Andros, declared void, since Andros had 
ruled that all wills should be probated at Boston. Upon spe- 
cial application of Mrs. Liveen, in 1690, the county court pro- 
bated a copy of the will, since Palmes held the original. To 
this probating the latter also objected on the ground that, 
though the court had been again legalized, the " ministry " 
referred to must be that recognized by the English law and not 
the Congregational ministry of the town, — the only one then 
existing. The colonial courts decided against him, and John 
and Nicholas Hallam, the widow's sons by a former marriage, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 185 

Ashurst had succeeded in having many of the 
charges dropped, the danger had been so great 
to the colony that he privately advised the gov- 
ernment to conciliate the Crown by protesting 
its immediate readiness to fulfill all military 
obligations, and, as a further proof of loyalty, 
to repeal at once the old law of 1657 against 
heretics which Queen Anne had just annulled 
(October 11, 1705) at the request of the Quak- 
ers. The General Court, as we have seen, fol- 
lowed his advice, and repealed the law in so far 
as it concerned Quakers. But this was not 
enough to satisfy other dissenters in the colony. 
The Rev. John Talbot had arrived in England 
in 1706 to plead in person ^^ for an American 

virtually accepted the terms of the will and the court's deci- 
sion by being- parties to the sale of a portion of the Liveen 
estate, the ship " Liveen." The estate could not be wholly 
settled ; so the town continued to receive a regular dividend 
until after the widow's death in 1698. Then the sons attempted 
to contest the will. The Court of Assistants confirmed the 
proceedings of the lower courts. Not satisfied with this deci- 
sion, Nicholas Hallam went to England in 1700-1702, and was 
allowed to plead his case before the Privy Council. Sir Henry 
Ashurst held that the charter gave the right of final decision, 
but the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations thought 
otherwise, and it looked as if Hallam was to win his case, 
when he was ordered to return to America and, because of 
technicalities, to retake all the testimony. In 1704, because 
of his acknowledged signature in the sale of the " Liveen," 
the suit was decided in favor of the colony. — F. M. Caulkins, 
Hist, of New London, pp. 222-228. 



186 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

bishop, and Colonel Heathcote in 1707 wrote ^^ 
with respect to the Episcopalians in Connecticut 
that it would be absolutely necessary to procure 
an order from the Queen freeing the Church of 
England people from the established rates, or 
they would always be so poor as to be depend- 
ent upon the Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel. He further asked the repeal of the law 
whereby the Connecticut magistrates " refuse 
liberty of conscience to those of the established 
(English) church." Colonel Heathcote adds 
that it would not be much more than had been 
granted to the Quakers, and that it " would be 
of the greatest service to the Church than can 
at first sight be imagined." 

So great was the importunity of the Con- 
necticut Episcopalians, that, in 1708, Governor 
Saltonstall wrote to England to disarm their 
complaints against the colony. It looked as if 
religious discontent might become a dangerous 
thing. Eoyal disfavor certainly would be. It 
might be better to condone the lack of religious 
uniformity among a few scattered dissenters, 
differing among themselves, and to endure it, — 
obnoxious as it was, — than to suffer the loss of 
the Connecticut charter. Moreover, this tendency 
to the spread of nonconformity might be con- 
trolled by judicious legislation. Furthermore, it 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 187 

would be politic to have upon tlie colony law- 
book some relief for dissenters from its Estab- 
lishment similar to the English statutes relieving 
nonconformists there from adherence to the 
Church of England. Hence the Toleration Act, 
and, of necessity, the proviso in the act of the 
following session of the General Court whereby 
it approved the Saybrook Platform. 

The Toleration Act was of no benefit to Roger- 
ine or Quaker, who by their principles were for- 
bidden to take the oath of allegiance that it 
demanded. It was of little practical advantage 
to Baptist or Episcopalian, but it was a move in 
the right direction. According to its terms, dis- 
senters, before the county courts, could qualify 
for organization into distinct religious bodies by 
taking the oath of fidelity to the crown, by deny- 
ing transubstantiation and by declaring their 
sober dissent from Congregationalism. They 
could have such liberty, provided that it in 
no way worked to the detriment of the church 
established in the colony, — that is, the law did 
not exclude any dissenter " from paying any 
such (established) minister or town dues as are 
or shall hereafter be due from him." 

At best, such toleration would provide a rigorous 
test of a dissenter's sincerity. He would have no- 
thing of worldly advantage to gain and much to 



188 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

lose as a " come-outer " from the Establishment. 
Social prestige would remain almost entirely 
within the state church. It would be to a man's 
pecuniary advantage to stay within its fold. 
Without it, he would be doubly taxed ; by the 
State for the support of Congregationalism, by 
his conscience to maintain the church it ap- 
proved. If he lapsed in duty toward his own, 
he would easily become a marked man among 
his few co-religionists. If he failed to attend 
regularly the church of his choice, the ancient 
law of the colony would hale him before the 
judge for neglect of public worship, and fine 
him for the benefit of a form of religion which 
he viewed with aversion as unscriptural, if not 
also anti-Christian. In a new and thinly settled 
country where life was hard and money scarce, 
this double taxation was of itself almost prohibi- 
tive of dissent. And yet this Toleration Act, 
notwithstanding its meagre terms, and which, 
considered in the light of the twentieth century, 
implies one of the worst forms of tyranny, was a 
measure of undreamed-of and dangerous liberal- 
ity if looked at from the point of view of the six- 
teenth century, or even from that of many princes 
of the eighteenth. The very summer following 
the passage of this act saw London crowded 
with refugees from the religious tyranny of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 189 

Palatinate, whose Elector was determined to 
force the people, after over a hundred and thirty 
years of Protestantism, back to Eome because he 
was himself a Romanist, and imperii religio 
RELiGio POPULi. The Connecticut law-makers 
had a good deal of faith in this same prin- 
ciple, though they never had resorted, and 
did not wish to do so, to extreme penalties to 
secure religious uniformity. The solidarity of 
the people and the geographical position of the 
colony had contributed largely to a uniform 
church life. Far from the usual ports of entry, 
the early dissenters had for the most part passed 
her by. But at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, watching the signs of the times else- 
where, and aware of the cosmopolitan element 
creeping into her population, the Connecticut au- 
thorities were ready to admit that soon it might 
be necessary to modify somewhat the old dictum 
that the religion of the government must be the 
religion of all its people. England had seen fit 
to make such modification, and her test of roughly 
twenty years had shown conclusively that religious 
toleration and civil disorders were not synony- 
mous, as had formerly been believed. The Con- 
necticut colony had no particular desire to fol- 
low in England's steps. If it had, after-history 
would have associated it in men's minds less with 



190 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

the Puritanical narrowness of New England and 
more with such tolerance as was shown in Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Toler- 
ance, Connecticut thought, might work well 
under a government like that of England, but 
her leaders were not convinced that it would be 
altogether wise for their own land. They, there- 
fore, had preferred to postpone as long as they 
could the possible evil day. Now that toleration 
could no longer be delayed, they had admitted 
it most guardedly, and at once had proceeded to 
strengthen their own church foundations by the 
establishment of the Saybrook system of eccle- 
siastical government. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FIKST VICTORY FOR DISSENT 

Ye shall not therefore oppress one another ; but thou shalt 
fear thy God ; for I am the Lord your God. — Leviticus, xxv, 
17. 

The dissenters found the terms of the Toleration 
Act too narrow ; the conditions under which they 
could enjoy their own church life too onerous. 
Consequently, they almost immediately began to 
agitate for a larger measure of liberty, and per- 
sisted in their demands for almost twenty years 
before obtaining any decided success. 

Foremost among the dissenters pressing for 
greater liberty, for exemption from taxes for the 
benefit of Congregational worship, and for the 
same privileges in the support of their own 
churches as the members of the Connecticut Es- 
tablishment enjoyed, were the Episcopalians. The 
year following the passage of the Toleration Act 
witnessed the first persecution of these people 
beyond that of tongue and pen. Fines and im- 
prisonments began in earnest and were continued, 
more or less frequently, for many years. Even 
as late as 1748, the Episcopalians of Heading 



192 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

were fined for reading the Prayer-book and for 
working on public fast-days. StiU later, in 1762, 
there was occasional oppression, as in the case of 
the New Milford Episcopalians. They desired to 
build a church, but had to wait for the county 
court to approve the site chosen. The court was 
averse to the building of the church, and accord- 
ingly was a long time in complying with this 
technicality. Meanwhile, the Episcopalians could 
not build, neither would they attend Congrega- 
tional worship, and the magistrates, refusing to 
recognize the services held in private houses, fined 
them for absence from public worship. This 
treatment was abandoned as soon as it became 
known that the rector had counseled his people 
to submit, as he intended to send a copy of the 
court's proceedings to England to be passed upon 
as to their legality. It was such petty, yet costly, 
persecution as this that became frequent after 
1709, and from which the Episcopalians were 
determined to escape. 

These Church-of -England men were increasing 
in numbers in the colony, and, at the passage of 
the Toleration Act, were quite hopeful that the 
Kev. John Talbot's mission to England to secure 
a bishop for America would prove successful. 
Although he was not successful in obtaining the 
episcopate, his mission received so much encour- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 193 

agement from those in high places that, upon 
Talbot's return, a home for the prospective bishop 
was purchased, in 1712, in Burlington, New 
Jersey. It was known that Queen Anne was 
much interested in the proposed bishopric, and 
letters were exchanged between the leaders of the 
movement in England and the prominent Inde- 
pendent clergymen in the colonies, in order to 
sound the state of public opinion. A bill for the 
American expansion of the Church of England, 
as a branch to be severed from the jurisdiction 
of the Bishop of London and to be planted in the 
colonies under a bishop with full ecclesiastical 
powers, was prepared and was ready for presen- 
tation in Parliament when the Queen's death, 
August 1, 1714, caused its withdrawal, and felled 
the hopes of Churchmen. George I had too many 
temporal affairs to occupy his mind to burden 
himself with the intricate rights, powers, and 
privileges of a new episcopate, sought by a few 
colonials scattered through the American wilder- 
ness ; — too many vexatious secular affairs in the 
colonies, and too heavy war-clouds darkening his 
European horizon. The Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel, in 1715, made one futile 
attempt to interest the king, and then gave up 
any hope of the immediate appointment of an 
American bishop. 



194 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

In the Connecticut colony, the Episcopalians 
had so increased that, in 1718, there was in 
Stratford a church of one hundred baptized per- 
sons, thirty-six communicants, and a congregation 
that frequently numbered between two and three 
hundred people. They were ministered to by 
traveling missionaries of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel. When these Strat- 
ford people appealed to the Society for a settled 
minister, they complained that " there is not any 
government in America but has our settled 
Church and minister, but this of Connecticut." ^2 
Still aU the Society could then do was to send 
a missionary priest, and to keep alive in Eng- 
land, among the powerful Church party there, 
so keen an interest that it would seize upon the 
first opportunity to use its great influence and 
to compel the English government to force the 
Connecticut authorities to comply with the de- 
mands of the colonial Churchmen for the un- 
restricted enjoyment of their religion. Such an 
interest was kept up by the regular, full reports 
which the Society required of all its missionaries. 
And these reports, be it remembered, were ex- 
pected to contain news of any kind, and of every- 
thing that happened in the colony of Connecticut, 
or elsewhere, that could possibly be turned to 
advantage in influencing the home authorities, in 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 195 

pushing the interests of the English Establish- 
ment in America, and in strengthening its mem- 
bership there. Although, after the death of Queen 
Anne, the king's indifference checked the move- 
ment for the American episcopate, its friends did 
not abandon it, and a persistent effort for its 
success was soon begun. One of its prime movers 
was the Kev. George Pigott, missionary to Strat- 
ford, Connecticut, in 1722. 

Under Mr. Pigott, the Church of England in 
Connecticut made a most encouraging and im- 
portant gain, when, in 1722, Timothy Cutler, 
Rector of Yale College, and six of his associates 
proclaimed their dissatisfaction with Congrega- 
tionalism, or, as they termed it, " the Presby- 
terianism " of the Connecticut established church. 
They asserted that " some of us doubt the valid- 
ity, and the rest are more fully persuaded of 
the invalidity of the Presbyterian ordination in 
opposition to the Episcopal." 

Three of these men remained in " doubt," and 
continued within the Congregational church.*^ 
Four of them, Rector Timothy Cutler, Tutor 
Daniel Brown, Rev. James Wetmore of North 
Haven, and Rev. Samuel Johnson of West 

« The Rev. John Hart of East Guilford, Samuel Whittlesey 
of Wallingford, and Jared Ellis of Killingworth. These men 
were always friendly to the Churchmen. 



196 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Haven, went to England to receive Episcopal 
ordination. ° The story of their conversion is to 
Churchmen an illustration of the scriptural com- 
mand, " Cast your bread upon the waters and it 
will return to you after many days." The Con- 
necticut authorities had chosen the Rev. Timothy 
Cutler because of his eloquence, and had sent 
him to Stratford to counteract the early successes 
of the Church-of -England missionary priests, who 
were at work among the people there. Later, in 
1719, Cutler, because of his abilities, was chosen 
President, or Rector, of Yale, as, in the early 
days, the head of the college was called. The 
seeds of doubt had entered his mind during his 
Stratford pastorate. He and his associates found 
many books in the college library that, instead of 
lessening, increased their doubts. After presid- 
ing for three years over the greatest institution 
of learning in the colony, which had for its object 
the preparation of men for service in civil office 
and, even more in those days, for service in reli- 
gion, Rector Cutler, together with his associates, 
announced their change of faith. The colony 
was taken by storm, and there spread through- 
out its length and breadth, and throughout New 

« The Rev. Daniel Brown died in England. In the next 
forty years, one tenth of those who crossed the sea for ordina- 
tion perished from dangers incident to the trip. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 197 

England also, a great fear that Episcopacy had 
made a cowp d^etat and was shortly to become the 
established church of her colonies as well as of 
England herself. Naturally, among the colonial 
Churchmen, it excited the largest hope " of a 
glorious revolution among the ecclesiastics of the 
country, because the most distinguished gentle- 
men among them are resolutely bent to promote 
her (the Church's) welfare and embrace her bap- 
tism and discipline, and if the leaders fall in 
there is no doubt to be made of the people." ^^ 

These hopes were in a degree confirmed by the 
conversion of one or two more ministers, and by 
the Yale men that the classes of 1723, 1724, 
1726, 1729, and 1733 gave to Episcopacy. By 
the impetus of these conversions, within a gen- 
eration, " the Episcopal Church under a native 
born minister had penetrated every town, had 
effected lodgment in every Puritan stronghold, 
and had drawn into her membership large num- 
bers of that sober-minded, self-contained, tena- 
cious people who constitute the membership of 
New England to-day." ^^ After the conversions of 
1722, the movement for the apostolic episcopate 
in America became more determined, and never 
wholly ceased until the consecration of Samuel 
Seabury as bishop of Connecticut in 1784. 

A decided change took place in Connecticut's 



198 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

policy upon the death of Governor Saltonstall in 
1724, and under his successor in office, former 
Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Talcott. The new 
governor was a Hartford man, more liberal in 
his ecclesiastical opinions and opposed to severe 
measures against dissenters. Hardly had Gover- 
nor Talcott taken office when Edmund Gibson, 
Bishop of London, wrote him, urging in behalf 
of the Episcopalians a remittance of ecclesiastical 
taxes. "If I ask anything," wrote the Bishop, 
" inconsistent with the laws of the country, I beg 
pardon ; but if not, I hope my request for favors 
for the Church of England will not appear un- 
reasonable." The Bishop accompanied his letter 
with a paper, a copy of a circular letter to the 
different colonial governors, in which, among 
other matters relating to his clergy, he professed 
his readiness to discipline them if necessary " in 
order to contribute to the peace and honor of the 
government." This proposal was due, in part, to 
the scandalous reputation in New England which 
the southern settled clergy bore. Because of this 
reputation, the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel had from the first made a special point of 
the morals of their missionary priests. Indeed, 
these priests, themselves, had warned the Society 
that, if it expected any returns from its missions in 
New England, it would have to take great pains 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 199 

to send out a superior class of men. Governor 
Talcott replied to Bishop Gibson, under date of 
December 1, 1725,'^ '' that there is but one Church 
of England minister in this colony,* and the 
church with him have the same protection as the 
rest of our Churches and are under no constraint 
to contribute to the support of any other minis- 
ter." After reflecting upon the number and 
character of the few persons in another town or 
two " who claim exemption from rates," Gover- 
nor Talcott quotes the colony law for the support 
of the ministry in every town, and adds that, 
upon the death of an incumbent, the townspeople 
" are quickly supplied by persons of our own 
conununion, educated in our public schools of 
Learning; which through divine blessing afforded 
us, we have sufficiency of those who are both 
learned and exemplary in their lives." This was 
a polite way of informing the bishop that Con- 
necticut preferred to do without his missionaries. 
It was one thing for the tolerant governor to 
grant exemption from Congregational taxes in 
the case of an influential church like that of 

« This year the home influence of the Church of England 
had been brought to bear with sufficient pressure to forbid the 
calling of a general synod of the New England churches which 
had been desired, and towards which Massachusetts had taken 
the initial step. See A. L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate, pp. 67-70. 

* Stratford. 



200 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Stratford, and quite another to extend the same 
toleration to every scattered handful of people 
who might claim to be members of the Church 
of England, and who might welcome the coming 
of her missionary priests. 

The Episcopalians, however, were not content 
to rest their privileges upon their numerical 
power in each little town, or upon the personal 
favor of the magistrates. They therefore con- 
tinued their agitation for exemption from support 
of Congregationalism and from fines for neglect- 
ing its public worship. Under the lead of the 
wardens and vestry of Fairfield, they obtained 
favor with the General Court in 1727,° when 
an act was passed, " providing how taxes levied 
upon members of the Church of England for the 
support of the Gospel should be disposed of," 
and exempting said members from paying any 
taxes " for the building of meeting houses for 
the present established Churches of this govern- 
ment." The law further declared that if within 
the parish bounds — 

there be a Society of y® Church of England, where 
there is a person in orders, according to y^ Canons 
of y^ Church of England, settled and abiding among 

« This same year, Georg^e I granted to Bishop Gibson a 
patent confirming the jurisdiction which, as Bishop o£ London, 
he claimed over the Church of England in the colonies. George 
II renewed the patent in 1728-29. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 201 

them and performing divine service so near to any 
person, that hath declared himself of y^ Church of 
England, that he can conveniently and doth attend 
y® public worship there, then the collectors, having 
first indifferently levied y^ tax, as aforesaid, shall 
deliver y® taxes collected of such persons declaring 
themselves, and attending as aforesaid, unto y^ minis- 
ter of y® Church of England, living near unto such 
persons ; which minister shall have power to receive 
and recover y® same, in order to his support in y® place 
assigned to him. 

But if such proportion of any taxes be not suffi- 
cient in any Society of y® Church of England to sup- 
port y® incumbent there, then such Society may levy 
and collect of them who profess and attend as afore- 
said, greater taxes, at their own discretion, to y® sup- 
port of their ministers. 

And the parishoners of y® Church of England, 
attending as aforesaid, are hereby excused from pay- 
ing any taxes for y® building meeting houses for y® 
present Established Churches of this government. ^^ 

After the passing of this law, the magistrates 
contented themselves with occasional unfair 
treatment of the weaker churches. They some- 
times haggled over the interpretation of the 
terms "near" and "conveniently" as found in 
the law. They objected to the appointment of 
one missionary to several stations or towns. 
They also did not always enforce upon the Pres- 



202 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

byterian collectors strict accuracy in making out 
their lists, and when the Episcopalians sought 
redress for unreturned taxes or unjust fines, 
they found their lawsuits blocked in the courts. 
The magistrates, also, showed almost exclusive 
preference for Congregationalists as bondsmen 
for strangers settling in the towns, while the 
courts continued to frequently refuse or to delay 
the approval of sites chosen for the erection 
of Episcopal churches. 

Finally, there was a certain amount of political 
and social ostracism directed against Church- 
men. A notable attempt to defraud the Epis- 
copalians of a due share of the school money, de- 
rived from the sale of public lands and from the 
emission of public bills, was defeated in 1738 
by a spirited protest, setting forth the illegality 
of the proceeding, the probable indignation of 
the King at such treatment of his good subjects 
and brethren in the faith, and by pointing to the 
fact, as recently shown by a test case in Massa- 
chusetts, that the Connecticut Establishment it- 
self could not exist without the special consent 
of the King.^^ The petition was signed by six 
hundred and thirty-six male inhabitants of the 
colony. They asserted in their protest that they 
had a share in equity derived from the charter ; 
that they bore their share of the expenses of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 203 

government ; and that the teaching of the Church 
of England made just as good citizens as did that 
of the Presbyterian Church. The public lands, 
from the sale of which the school money was 
derived, were those along the Housatonic river. 
The money was appropriated according to a law 
enacted in 1732 which distributed it among the 
older towns as a reward for good schools. But, 
in 1738, the legislature passed a biU by which 
a majority vote of the town or parish could divert 
the money to the support of " the gospel minis- 
try as by law in the colony established." Natu- 
rally this new law operated against aU dissenters, 
who, equally anxious with the Congregationalists 
to have good schools, were an ignored minority 
whenever the latter chose to vote the money to 
the support of their church. As a result of this 
spirited protest of the Episcopalians, the enact- 
ment of 1738 was repealed two years later " be- 
cause of misunderstanding." Notwithstanding 
such hardships as the Episcopalians suffered in 
Connecticut, their own writers declare that, at 
this period of colonial history, the Churchmen in 
Connecticut had less to complain of than their 
co-religionists in New York and in the southern 
colonies. 

While the Episcopalians were agitating for a 
larger liberty than that granted by the Toleration 



204 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Act, the other dissenters, Rogerines, Quakers, 
and Baptists, were not idle. 

The efforts of the Rogerines were marked more 
by violence than by success. They had become 
less fanatic, and persecution had died away during 
the first ten years following the passage of the 
Toleration Act. All might have gone smoothly 
had they not suddenly stirred Governor Salton- 
stall to renewed dislike, the magistrates to fresh 
alarm, and the people to great contempt and in- 
dignation. This they accomplished by a sort of 
mortuary tribute to their leader, John Rogers, 
who died in 1721. This tribute took the form 
of renewed zeal, and was marked by a revival of 
some of their most obnoxious practices. The 
Rogerines determined to break up the observance 
of the Puritan Sabbath. Immediately, an " Act 
for the Better Detecting and more effectual Pun- 
ishment of Prophaneness and Immorality " was 
passed. It was especially directed against the 
Rogerines. Its most striking characteristic was 
that it changed the policy of the government from 
the time-honored Anglo-Saxon theory that every 
man is innocent until proved guilty, to the doc- 
trine that a man, accused, must be guilty until 
proved innocent. In so oft-recurring a charge 
as that of being absent from public worship, it 
became lawful to exact fines unless the accused 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 205 

could prove before a magistrate that lie had been 
present. But this first act did not dampen suffi- 
ciently the renewed zeal of the Rogerines, and 
for two years there was a continuance of sharp 
legislation to reduce their disorderliness. They 
were fined five shillings for leaving their houses 
on Sunday unless to attend the orthodox worship, 
and twenty shillings for gathering in meeting- 
houses without the consent of the ministers. They 
were given a month, or less, in the house of cor- 
rection, and at their own expense for board, for 
each offense of unruly or noisy behavior on Sun- 
day near any meeting-house ; for unlawful travel 
or behavior on that day ; and for refusal to pay 
fines assessed for breaking any of the colony's 
ecclesiastical laws. These laws^^ were enforced 
one Sunday in 1725 against a company of Rog- 
erines who were going quietly on their way 
through Norwich to attend services in Lebanon. 
The outburst of religious fervor spent itself in 
two or three years. Governor Talcott did not 
believe in strong repressive measures, and it was 
soon conceded that the ignoring of their eccen- 
tricities, if kept within reasonable bounds, was 
the most efficient way to discourage the Rogerines. 
Summarizing the influence of this sect, we find 
that they contributed nothing definite to the slow 
development of religious toleration in Connecticut. 



206 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

If anything, their fanaticism hindered its growth, 
and they gained little for themselves and nothing 
for the cause. As the years went on and their 
little sect were permitted to indulge their pecul- 
iar notions, and the props of the State were 
not weakened nor the purity of religion vitally 
assailed, the Rogerines contributed their mite to- 
wards convincing mankind, and the Connecticut 
people in particular, that brethren of different 
creeds and religious practices might live together 
in security and harmony without danger to the 
civil peace. 

During the seventeen years that Governor 
Talcott held office, 1724-41, the life of the 
colony was marked by its notable expansion 
through the settlement of new towns," and by 
the dexterity with which its foreign affairs — its 
relations to England and its boundary disputes 
with its neighbors — were conducted. The last 
dragged on for years, calling for several expensive 
commissions and causing much confusion. The 
Massachusetts line was determined in 1713 ; that 
of Rhode Island in 1728 ; and that of New York 
in 1735. Connecticut, in all these cases, had to 
be wary lest the attempts to settle these disputed 
claims should weary, antagonize, or anger the 

« Between 1700 and 1741 more than thirty new towns were 
organized, making twice as many as in 1700. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 207 

j^ing 88 Many of the old charges were renewed, 
and Connecticut was no longer regarded as a 
" dutiful " colony, but rather as one altogether 
too independent, from whom it might be wise to 
wrest her charter, subjecting her to a royal gov- 
ernor. As early as 1715, her colonial agent had 
been advised to procure a peaceable surrender of 
the charter. To this proposal, Governor Salton- 
stall had returned a courteous and dignified re- 
fusal. But the danger was always cropping up. 
Governor Talcott's English official correspond- 
ence is full of details concerning Connecticut's 
increasing anxiety concerning the attitude and 
the decisions of the home government ; over the 
dangers consequent to her institutions or to her 
charter. It was repeatedly suggested that that 
charter should be surrendered, modified in favor 
of the King's supervision, or annulled. In the 
Governor's letters, one follows the intricacies of 
the boundary disputes, of the complicated Mohe- 
gan case, and sounds the dangers to the colony 
from the disposition and decisions of the Crown. ^^ 
One case in particular demands a passing 
consideration because of its far-reaching effects, 
and because it paralleled in time the legislation 
in the colony which broadened the Toleration 
Act. This was the famous case of John Win- 
throp against his brother-in-law, Thomas Lech- 



208 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

mere, to recover real estate left by the elder 
Winthrop to his son and daughter. The suit 
brought up the whole question of land entail in 
Connecticut, and, with it, the possibility of an 
economic and social revolution in the colony 
which would have been the death-blow to its 
prosperity. Winthrop, by appealing the case to 
England, brought Connecticut into still greater 
disfavor, and risked the loss of the charter, to- 
gether with many special privileges in reh'gion 
and politics which the colony enjoyed through a 
liberal interpretation of that instrument. In the 
course of the suit, the constitutional relations of 
Crown and colony had to be threshed out. 

John Winthrop's father died in 1717, when, 
according to Connecticut, but not English, law 
of primogeniture, Winthrop received as eldest 
son a double portion of his father's real estate, 
and his sister, Thomas Lechmere's wife, the rest. 
Winthrop's brother-in-law was not a man wholly 
to be trusted to deal justly with his wife's pro- 
perty; but this, in itself, was a very small factor 
in the suit. Winthrop was at variance with the 
Connecticut authorities, and was dissatisfied with 
his share both of his father's property and of 
his uncle's, whose heir he was. No matter how 
much his own personal interests might endanger 
the colony, Winthrop resolved to have all the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 209 

property due him as eldest sou and heir under 
English law. He appealed his case to England, 
taking it directly from the local probate court, 
and ignoring the Court of Assistants, where he 
might have obtained some redress. Moreover, to 
influence the decision in his favor he included 
in his list of grievances many of the old offenses 
charged against Connecticut. He did this, even 
while acknowledging that the colonial Intestate 
Act, framed in 1699,^^ was but the embodiment 
of custom that had existed from the beginning 
of the colony. While this case dragged on, it 
was again intimated to Connecticut that the 
surrender of her charter, or at least the sub- 
stitution of an explanatory charter, might be an 
acceptable price for the royal confirmation of 
her Intestate Law. Finally, Winthrop went to 
England, and was given a private hearing, at 
which no representative of the colony was pre- 
sent. As a result of this hearing, an order in 
Council was issued February 15, 1728, annul- 
ling the Connecticut Intestate Act as contrary to 
the laws of England and as exceeding charter 
rights. Moreover, the colonial authorities were 
ordered to measure off the lands, claimed by 
Winthrop, and to restore them to him. 

Of course, it would take some time to obey the 
order. Meanwhile, if this restitution were made, 



210 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

if the decision were submitted to, it would in- 
validate so many land titles as to threaten the 
very existence of Connecticut's economic struc- 
ture. The colony sought the best legal talent 
obtainable. For seventeen years Connecticut con- 
tinued this expensive lawsuit, urging always her 
willingness to comply in the case of Winthrop, if 
only the decision be made a special one and not 
a precedent, — if only an order in Council, or an 
act of Parliament, would reinstate the Connecti- 
cut Intestate Law. Her agents in England were 
instructed to demonstrate how well the colonial 
division of property had worked, and that under 
the English division, where all real estate went 
to the eldest son, if it were practiced in a new 
and heavily wooded country, whose chief wealth 
was agriculture, the rental of lands would yield 
income barely sufficient to pay taxes and repair 
fences, and there could be no dowry for the 
daughters. A still further result would be, that 
the younger sons would be driven into manufac- 
turing or forced to emigrate. In each case the 
Crown would suffer, either by the loss of a colo- 
nial market for its manufactured products, or 
by an impoverished colony, incapable of mak- 
ing satisfactory returns to the royal treasury.^^ 
Moreover, in the case of emigration, when Con- 
necticut, lacking men to plow her fields, could 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 211 

no longer produce the foodstuffs the surplus of 
which she sold to the " trading parts of Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island " to supply the fish- 
eries, the Crown would feel still another baneful 
effect from its attempt to enforce the English 
law of entail. Again, there was another aspect 
from which to view the annulment of the Con- 
necticut Intestate Law. Its annulment would 
render worthless many past and present land- 
titles. Creditors who had accepted land for debt 
would suffer. Titles to lands, held by towns, as 
well as individuals, would become subject to liti- 
gation ; the whole colony would be plunged into 
lawsuits, and its economic framework would be rent 
in pieces. The Intestate Law was in accordance 
with custom throughout New England. When in 
1737 a similar statute in Massachusetts was sus- 
tained by the King in Council in the appeal of 
Phillips vs. Savage, Connecticut, notwithstanding 
the renewed and repeated suggestions to give up 
her charter, took courage to continue the contest. 
During these years the question of the con- 
stitutional relation of colony and Crown was fre- 
quently raised, and Connecticut was called upon 
to show that her laws were not contrary to 
the laws of England. She had to prove that 
they were not contrary to the common law of 
England ; nor to the statute law, existing at the 



212 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

founding of the colony; nor to those acts of 
Parliament that had been expressly extended to 
the colony. This was the most commonly held 
of the three interpretations of "not contrary 
to the laws of England." The most restricted 
interpretation was that all colonial laws higher 
than by-laws, and " which even within that term 
touched upon matters already provided for by 
English common or statute law, were iUegal " or 
" contrary." Under this interpretation, " the 
colonies were as towns upon the royal demesne." 
Connecticut herself held to a third construction, 
maintaining that, as her own charter nowhere 
stipulated that her administration should accord 
with the civil, common, or statute law of Eng- 
land, she, at least, among the colonies was free 
to frame her own laws according to her own 
needs and desires. Holding to this opinion, 
which had never been corrected by the Crown, 
Connecticut maintained that " contrary to the 
laws of England " was limited in its intent to 
contrary to those laws expressly designed by 
Parliament to extend to the plantations. More- 
over, Connecticut insisted that the colonies were 
not to be compared to English towns, because, 
unlike the towns, they had no representation 
in Parliament. The Connecticut Intestate Act 
was opposed to the English law according to the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 213 

first two interpretations, but not according to 
the third. Further, the Connecticut authorities 
felt that if the conditions which had given rise 
to the law were fuUy realized in England, the 
apparent insubordination of the colony would 
disappear in the light of the real equity of the 
colonial statute. In Governor Talcott's letter, 
dated November 3, 1729, under " The Case of 
Connecticut Stated," there is a summary of 
the reasons why the colony hesitated to appeal 
directly to Parliament for a confirmation of the 
Intestate Act. She was afraid of exciting still 
greater disfavor by seeming to ask privileges in 
addition to those already conferred upon her 
in her very liberal charter. She was afraid of 
courting inquiry in regard to her ecclesiastical 
laws, her laws relating to the collegiate school, 
and also sundry civil laws. The colony feared 
that the result of such an investigation would be 
that she would thereafter be rated, not as a gov- 
ernment or province, but as a corporation with 
a charter permitting only the enactment of by- 
laws. Moreover, she dreaded to be ranked with 
" rebellious Massachusetts," and thus further 
expose herself to a probable loss of her charter. 
After contesting the decision against her for 
many years, at last in 1746 she virtually won 
her case through a decision given in England in 



214 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the suit of Clarke vs. Tousey,^^ — a suit whicli 
had been appealed from the colony, and which 
presented much the same claim as Winthrop's. 
The decision in favor of Clarke was equivalent 
to a recognition of Connecticut's Intestacy Law. 
It has been pointed out that, important as the 
Winthrop controversy was from the economic 
standpoint, it was equally important as fore- 
shadowing the legislation of the English govern- 
ment some thirty years later, and as defining 
the relation of colony and Crown. Moreover, in 
1765, as in 1730, " economic causes and condi- 
tions," writes Professor Andrews in his discus- 
sion of the Connecticut Intestacy Law, " drove 
the colonists into opposition to England quite 
as much as did theories of political independence, 
or of so-caUed self-evident rights of man." 

It was during the continuance of this trouble- 
some Winthrop suit, while boundary lines were 
stiU unsettled, while as yet the Mohegan titles 
remained in dispute, while the most grievous 
charge of encouraging home manufactures, and 
many other complaints were brought against Con- 
necticut, — it was in the midst of her perplexities 
and conflicting interests that the dissenters within 
her borders sought greater religious liberty. They 
sought it, not only through their own local 
efforts, but through the strength of their friends 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 215 

in England, who brought all their influence to 
bear upon the home government. With such 
help Episcopalians had won exemption in 1727, 
and within two years Quakers and Baptists were 
accorded similar freedom. 

Connecticut Quakers, though few in numbers, 
were very determined to have their rights. From 
1706, the Newport Yearly Meeting had encour- 
aged the collecting and recording of all cases of 
" sufferance." In 1714, at the close of Queen 
Anne's War (1702-13), the Newport Yearly 
Meeting reported to that of London that " there 
is much suffering on account of the Indians at 
the Eastward, yet not one (of ours) had fallen 
during the last year. Travelling preachers hav- 
ing frequently visited those parts without the 
least harm. . . . Friends in several places 
have suffered deeply on account of not paying 
presbyterian priests, and for the Refusing to 
bear Armes, an Account of which we Doe here- 
with Send." In 1715, the English law had 
granted them the perpetual privilege of substi- 
tuting affirmation for oath. The Quakers were 
determined to have the same freedom in the colo- 
nies as in England. Accordingly, they watched 
with interest the test case between the Quaker 
constables of Duxbury and Tiverton, — both, 
then, under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, — 



216 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and tlie authorities of that colony. Fines and 
persecutions were so much alike in Connecticut 
and Massachusetts that a dissenter's victory in 
one colony would go far towards obtaining ex- 
emption in the other. The Quaker constables 
had refused to collect the church rate, and for 
this refusal were thrown into prison. Thereupon 
a petition, with many citations from the colony 
law books, was sent to England, begging that 
the prisoners be released and excused from their 
fines, and that such unjust laws be annulled. 
The Privy Council ordered the prisoners released 
and their fine remitted. This decision was ren- 
dered in 1724, and, with the success of the 
Episcopalians three years later, still further 
encouraged both Quakers and Baptists to seek 
relief from ecclesiastical taxes and fines. Two 
years later, in May, 1729, the Quakers appealed 
to the Connecticut Court for such exemption, and 
were released from contributing to the support 
of the established ministry and from paying any 
tax levied for building its meeting-houses, pro- 
vided they could show a certificate from some 
society of their own (either within the colony or 
without it, if so near its borders that they could 
regularly attend its services) vouching for their 
support of its worship and their presence at its 
regular meetings. ^^ 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 217 

Turning to the Baptists, the oppressive mea- 
sures employed to make them violate their con- 
science ceased on the inauguration of Governor 
Talcott in 1724. Thereafter, those among them 
who conformed to the requirements of the Toler- 
ation Act received some measure of freedom. 
To the neighborly interest of the Association of 
Baptist Churches of North Kingston, Rhode 
Island, and to the influence of leading Baptists 
in that colony, including among them its gov- 
ernor (who subjoined a personal note to the 
Association's appeal to the Connecticut Gen- 
eral Court), was due the favor of the Court ex- 
tended in October, 1729,^* to the Baptists, 
whereby they were granted exemption upon the 
same terms as those offered the Quakers. 

Thus in barely twenty years from the passage 
of the Toleration Act, Episcopalian, Quaker, 
and Baptist had driven the thin edge of a de- 
stroying wedge into the foundations of the Con- 
necticut Establishment. Each dissenting body 
was pitifully small in absolute strength, and they 
had no inclination toward united action. Quak- 
ers and Baptists were required to show certif- 
icates, a requirement soon to be considered in 
itself humiliating. The new laws were neg- 
ative, in that they empowered the assessor to 
omit to tax those entitled to exemption, but they 



218 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

provided no penalty to be enforced against asses- 
sors who failed to make such omission. Indeed, 
in individual cases, the laws might seem to be 
scarcely more than an admission of the right to 
exemption. However, it was an admission that 
a century's progress had brought the knowledge 
that brethren of different religious opinions could 
dwell together in peace. It was an exemption 
by which the government admitted, as well as 
claimed, the right of choice in religious worship. 
It was a far cry to the acknowledgment that a 
man was free to think his own thoughts and fol- 
low his own convictions, provided they did not 
interfere with the rights of other men. The new 
laws were a concession by a strongly intrenched 
church to the natural rights of weaker ones, 
whose title to permanency it greatly doubted. 
They were a concession by a government whose 
best members felt it to be the State's moral and 
religious obligation to support one form of reli- 
gion and to protect it at the cost, if neces- 
sary, of all other forms, — a concession, by 
such a government, to a very small minority 
of its subjects, holding the same appreciation of 
their religious duty as that which had nerved 
the founders of the colony. It was a concession 
by the community to a very few among their 
number, who were divergent in church polity and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 219 

practice, but who were united in a Protestant 
creed and in the conviction, held then by every 
respectable citizen, that every man should be 
made to attend and support some accepted and 
organized form of Christian worship. 



CHAPTER IX 



Wake, awake, for night is flying : 

The watchmen on the heights are crying, 

Awake, Jerusalem, arise ! — Advent Hymn. 

The opposition of Episcopalian, Quaker, and 
Baptist to the Connecticut Establishment, if 
measured by ultimate results, was important 
and far-reaching. But it was dwarfed almost to 
insignificance, so feeble was it, so confined its 
area, when compared to that opposition which, 
thirty-five years after the Saybrook Synod and 
a dozen years after the exemption of the dissent- 
ers, sprang up within the bosom of the Congre- 
gational church itself, as a protest against civil 
enactments concerning religion. This protest 
was a direct result of the moral and spiritual 
renascence that occurred in New England and 
that became known as the " Great Awakening." 
History in all times and countries shows a 
periodicity of religious activity and depression. 
It would sometimes seem as if these periodic 
outbreaks of religious aspirations were but the 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 221 

last device of self-seeking, — were but attempts 
to find consolation for life's hardships and to se- 
cure happiness hereafter. Fortunately such selfish 
motives are transmuted in the search for larger 
ethical and spiritual conceptions. An enlarged 
insight into the possibilities of living tends to 
slough off selfishness and to make more habitual 
the occasional, and often involuntary, response to 
Christlike deeds and ideals. But so ingrained is 
our earthly nature that, in communities as in 
nations, periods alternate with periods, and the 
pendulum swings from laxity to morality, from 
apathy to piety, gradually shortening its arc. So 
in Connecticut, numbers of her towns from time 
to time had been roused to greater interest in 
religion before the spiritual cyclone of the great 
revival, or " Great Awakening," swept through 
the land in 1740 and the two following years. 
The earlier and local revivals were generally 
due to some special calamity, as sickness, failure 
of harvest, ill-fortune in war, or some unusual 
occurrence in nature, such as an earthquake 
or comet, with the familiar interpretation that 
Jehovah was angry with the sins of his people. 
Sometimes, however, the zeal of a devoted min- 
ister would kindle counter sparks among his 
people. Such a minister was the Rev. Solomon 
Stoddard, who mentions five notable revivals, or 



222 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

" harvests," " as he calls them, during his sixty 
years of ministry in the Northampton church. 
A few other New England towns had similar re- 
vivals, but they were brief and rare. 

Notwithstanding these occasional local "stir- 
rings of the heart," at the beginning of the second 
quarter of the eighteenth century a cold, formal 
piety was frequently the covering of indifferent 
living and of a smug, complacent Christianity, 
wherein the letter kiUed and the spirit did not 
give life. This was true all over New England, 
and elsewhere. Nor was this deadness confined 
to the colonies alone, for the Wesleys were soon 
to stir the sluggish current of English religious 
life. In New England, the older clergymen, like 
the Mathers of Massachusetts, conservative men, 
whose memories or traditions were of the golden 
age of Puritanism, had long bemoaned the loss 
of religious interest, the inability of reforming 
synods to create permanent improvement, and the 
helplessness of ecclesiastical councils or of civil 
enactments to rouse the people from the real 
" decay of piety in the land," and from their in- 
difference to the immorality that was increasing 
among them. This indifference grew in Connecti- 
cut after the Saybrook Platform had laid a firm 
hold upon the churches. Its discipline created a 

« At Northampton in 1680, 1684, 1697, 1713, and 1719. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 223 

tendency, on the one hand, to hard and narrow 
ecclesiasticism, and, on the other, to careless living 
on the part of those who were satisfied with a 
mere formal acceptance of the principles of re- 
ligion and with the bare acknowledgment of the 
right of the churches to their members' obedi- 
ence.^ 

It is a great mistake [writes Jonathan Edwards] 
if any one imagines that all these external perform- 
ances (owning the covenant, accepting the sacraments, 
observing the Sabbath and attending the ministry), 
are of the nature of a profession of anything that be- 
longs to saving grace, as they are commonly used and 
understood. . . . People are taught that they may 
use them all, and not so much as make any pretence 
to the least degree of sanctifying grace ; and this is 
the established custom. So they are used and so they 
are understood. ... It is not unusual . . . for per- 
sons, at the same time they come into the church and 
pretend to own the covenant, freely to declare to their 
neighbors, that they have no imagination that they 
have any true faith in Christ or love to Him.®^ 

The General Court, relieved from the over- 
sight of the churches, had bent itself to preserv- 
ing the colony's charter rights from its enemies 

« As early even as 1711, the Hartford North Association 
suggested some reformation in the Half- Way Covenant prac- 
tice because it noted that persons, lax in life, were being ad- 
mitted under its terms of church membership. 



224 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

abroad, and to the material interests involved in 
a conservative, wise, and energetic home devel- 
opment. The people's thoughts were with the 
Court more than with the clergy, who had fallen 
from a healthy enthusiasm in their profession 
into a sort of spiritual deadness and dull accept- 
ance of circumstances.^^ As a sort of corollary 
to Stoddard's teaching that the Lord's Supper 
was itself a means toward attaining salvation, it 
followed that clergymen, though they felt no 
special call to their ministry, were nevertheless 
believed to be worthy of their office. The older 
theology of New England had tended to morbid 
introspection. Stoddard, in avoiding that dan- 
ger, had thrown the doors of the Church too 
widely open, and the result was a gradual under- 
mining of its spiritual power. The continued 
acceptance of the Half -Way Covenant, " laxative 
rather than astringent in its nature," helped to 
produce a low estimate of religion. The tender- 
ness that the Cambridge Platform had encour- 
aged towards " the weakest measure of faith " 
had broadened into such laxity that, in many 
cases, ministers were willing to receive accounts 
of conversions which had been written to order 
for the applicants for church membership. The 
Church, moreover, had come directly under the 
control of politics, a condition never conducive 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 225 

to its purity. The law of 1717, " for the better 
ordering and regulating parishes or societies," 
had made the minister the choice of the major- 
ity of the townsmen who were voters. This re- 
versed the early condition of the town, merged 
by membership into the church, to a church 
merged into the town.^^ There was still another 
factor, often the last and least willingly recog- 
nized in times of religious excitement, namely, 
the commercial depression throughout the coun- 
try, resulting from years of a fluctuating cur- 
rency. This depression contributed largely to 
the revival movement, and helped to spread the 
enthusiasm of the Great Awakening. Connecti- 
cut's currency had been freer from inflation than 
that of other New England colonies. But her 
paper money experiments in the years from 1714 
to 1749 grew more and more demoralizing. Up 
to 1740, Connecticut had issued X156,000 in 
paper currency. At the time of the Great Awak- 
ening she had still outstanding £39,000 for 
which the colony was responsible. Of this, all 
but <£6000 had been covered by special taxation. 
There stiU remained, however, about X3 3,000 
which had been lent to the various counties. 
Taxation was heavy, wages low and prices high, 
and there was not a man in the colony who did 
not feel the effect of the rapidly depreciating 



226 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

currency .^^ This general depression fell upon a 
generation of New Englanders whose minds no 
longer dwelt preeminently upon religious mat- 
ters, but who were, on the contrary, preeminently 
commercial in their interests. 

Such were the general conditions throughout 
New England and such the low state of reli- 
gion in Connecticut, when, in the Northampton 
church, Solomon Stoddard's grandson, the great 
Jonathan Edwards, in December, 1734, preached 
the sermons which created the initial wave of a 
great religious movement. This religious revival 
spread slowly through generally lax New Eng- 
land, and through the no less lax Jerseys, and 
through the backwoods settlements of Pennsyl- 
vania, until it finally swept the southern colonies. 
At the time, 1738, the Kev. George Whitefield 
was preaching in Carolina, and acceptably so to 
his superior, Alexander Garden, the Episcopal 
commissary to that colony. Touched by the 
enthusiasm of the onflowing religious movement, 
Whitefield's zeal and consequent radicalism, as 
he swayed toward the Congregational teaching 
and practices, soon put him in disfavor with his 
fellow Churchmen. Such disfavor only raised 
the priest still higher in the opinion of the dis- 
senters, and they flocked to hear his eloquent 
sermons. Whitefield soon decided to return to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 227 

England. There he encountered the great revival 
movement which was being conducted, princi- 
pally by the Wesleys, and he at once threw 
himself into the work. Meanwhile, he had con- 
ceived a plan for a home for orphans in Georgia, 
and, a little later, he determined upon a visit to 
New England in its behalf. Upon his arrival in 
Boston in 1740, the Eev. George Whitefield was 
welcomed with open arms. Great honor was paid 
him. Crowds flocked to hear him, and he was 
sped with money and good-will throughout New 
England as he journeyed, preaching the gospel, 
and seeking alms for the southern orphanage. 
His advent coincided in time with the reviving 
interest in religion, especially in Connecticut. 
Interest over the revival of 1735 had centred 
on that colony the eyes of the whole non-liturgi- 
cal English-speaking world. Whitefield's preach- 
ing was to this awakening religious enthusiasm 
as match to tinder. 

The religious passion, kindled in 1735 by Ed- 
wards, and hardly less by his devoted and spirit- 
ually-minded wife, had in Connecticut swept over 
Windsor, East Windsor, Coventry, Lebanon, 
Durham, Stratford, Ripton, New Haven, Guil- 
ford, Mansfield, Tolland, Hebron, Bolton, Pres- 
ton, Groton, and Woodbury .^9 The period of 
this first " harvest " was short. The revival had 



228 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

swept onward, and indifference seemed once 
more to settle down upon the land. But the 
news of the revival in Connecticut had reached 
England through letters of Dr. Benjamin Cole- 
man of Boston. His account of it had created so 
much interest that Jonathan Edwards was per- 
suaded to write for English readers his " Narra- 
tive of the Surprising Work of God." Editions 
of this book appeared in 1737-38 in both Eng- 
land and America, and all Anglo-Saxon non- 
prelatical circles pored over the account of the 
recent revival in Connecticut. Religious enthu- 
siasm revived, and was roused to a high pitch 
by Whitefield's itinerant preaching, as well as 
by that of Jonathan Edwards, and by the visit 
to New England of the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, 
one of two brothers who had created widespread 
interest by their revival work in New Jersey. 
A religious furor, almost mania, spread through 
New England, and the " Great Awakening " 
came in earnest. 

The Rev. George Whitefield reached New- 
port, Rhode Island, in September, 1740. Crowds 
flocked to hear him during his brief visit there. 
In October, he proceeded to Boston, where he 
preached to enthusiastic audiences, including all 
the high dignitaries of Church and State. Dur- 
ing his ten days' sojourn in the city, no praise 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 229 

was too fulsome, no honor too great. Whitefield 
next went to Northampton, drawn by his desire 
to visit Edwards. After a week of conference 
with the great divine, Whitefield passed on 
through Connecticut, preaching as he went, and 
devoted the rest of the year to itinerating through 
the other colonies. Already his popularity had 
been too much for him, and he frequently took 
it upon himself to upbraid, in no measured 
terms, the settled ministry for lack of earnest- 
ness in their calling and lack of Christian char- 
acter. This visit of Whitefield was followed by 
one from the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, who arrived 
in Boston in December, and spent his time, until 
the following March, preaching in Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. Tennant was also out- 
spoken in his denunciations, and both men, while 
sometimes justified in their criticisms, were fre- 
quently hasty and censorious in their judgments 
of those who differed from them. 

Ministers throughout New England were 
quick to support or to oppose the revival move- 
ment, and a goodly number of them, as itiner- 
ants, took up the evangelical work. Dr. Colman 
and Dr. Sewall of Boston, Jonathan Edwards 
and Dr. Bellamy of Connecticut, were among 
the most influential divines to support the Great 
Awakening, — to call the revival by the name 



230 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

by, which it was to go down in history. Unfor- 
tunately, among the aroused people, there were 
many who pressed their zeal beyond the rev- 
erent bounds set by these leaders. The religious 
enthusiasm rushed into wild ecstasies during the 
preaching of the almost fanatic Rev. James 
Davenport of Southold, and of those itinerant 
preachers who, ignorant and carried away by 
emotions beyond their control, attempted to fol- 
low his example. 

During this religious fever there were times 
when aU business was suspended. Whole com- 
munities gave themselves up to conversion and 
to passing through the three or more distinct 
stages of religious experience which Jonathan 
Edwards, as well as the more ignorant itinerants, 
accepted as signs of the Lord's compassion. 
Briefly stated, these stages were, first, a heart- 
rending misery over one's sinfulness ; a state 
of complete submissiveness, expressing itself in 
those days of intense belief both in heaven and 
in a most realistic hell, as complete willing- 
ness " to be saved or damned," ° whichever the 
Lord in his great wisdom saw would fit best 
into His eternal scheme. Finally, there was the 

« This "to be saved or damned" was, later, a marked 
characteristic of Hopkinsianism, or the teaching of the Rev. 
Samuel Hopkins, 1723-1813. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 231 

blessed state of ecstatic happiness, when it was 
borne in upon one that he or she was, indeed, 
one of the few of " God's elect." ^^^ The revival 
meetings were marked by shouting, sobbing, 
sometimes by fainting, or by bodily contortions. 
AU these, in the fever of excitement, were be- 
lieved by many persons to be special marks of 
supernatural power, and, if they followed the 
words of some ignorant and rash exhorter, tiiey 
were even more likely to be considered tokens 
of divine favor, — illustrations of God's choice of 
the simple and lowly to confound the wisdom 
of the world. The strong emotional character of 
the religious meetings of our southern negroes, 
as well as their frequent sentimental rather than 
practical or moral expression of religion, has 
been credited in large measure to the hold over 
them which this great religious revival of the 
eighteenth century gained, when its enthusiasm 
roUed over the southern colonies. Be that as it 
may, any adequate appreciation of the frequent 
daily occurrences in New England during the 
Great Awakening would be best realized by one 
of this twentieth century were it possible to form 
a composite picture, having the unbridled emo- 
tionalism of our negro camp-meetings super- 
imposed upon the solid respectability and grave 
reasonableness of the men of that earlier day. 



232 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

As the lines of one and the other constituent 
of this composite picture blend, the momentary 
feeling of impatience and disgust vanishes in a 
wave of compassion as the irresistible earnest- 
ness and the pitiless logic of those days press 
for recognition, and we realize the awful suffer- 
ings of many an ignorant or sensitive soul. It 
was not until the religious revival had passed its 
height that the people began to realize the folly 
and dangers of the hysteria that had accom- 
panied it. It was not until long afterward that 
many of its characteristics, which had been in- 
terpreted as supernatural signs, were known and 
understood, and correctly diagnosticated as out- 
ward evidence of physical and nervous exhaus- 
tion. 

Such, outwardly, were the marked features of 
the Great Awakening. Yet its incentives to noble 
living were great and lasting. Its immediate re- 
sults were a revolt against conventional religion, 
a division into ecclesiastical parties, and a great 
schism within the Establishment, which, before 
the breach was healed, had improved the quality 
of religion in every meeting-house and chapel 
in the land and broadened the conception of re- 
ligious liberty throughout the colony. 



CHAPTER X 

THE GREAT SCHISM 
If a house be divided against itself. — Mark iii, 25. 

From such a revival as that of the Great Awaken- 
ing, parties must of necessity arise. Upon un- 
disciplined fanaticism, the Established church 
must frown. But when it undertook to discipline 
large numbers of church members or whole 
churches, recognizedly within its embracing fold 
and within their lawful privileges, a great schism 
resulted, and the schismatics were sufficiently 
tenacious of their rights to come out victorious 
in their long contest for toleration. 

The proviso of the Saybrook Platform had 
arranged for the continued existence of churches, 
Congregational rather than Presbyterian in their 
interpretation of that platform ; yet, as late as 
1730, when but few remained, the question had 
arisen whether members of such churches, " since 
they were allowed and under the protection of 
the laws," ought to qualify according to the Tol- 
eration Act. The Court decided in the negative,^^^ 
arguing that, although they differed from the 



234 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

majority of the churches in preferring the Cam- 
bridge Platform of church discipline, they had 
been permitted under the colony law of May 13, 
1669, establishing the Congregational church, 
and had been protected by the proviso of 1708. 
The Court in its decision of 1730 seems also to 
have included a very few churches that had re- 
volted from the religious formalism creeping in 
under the Saybrook system, and that had re- 
turned to the earlier type of Congregationalism. 
After the Great Awakening, churches " thus 
allowed and under the protection of our laws " 
were found to increase so rapidly that the move- 
ment away from the Saybrook Platform threat- 
ened to undermine the ecclesiastical system, and 
to endanger the Establishment. Seeing this, the 
Court, or General Assembly,'^ began to enforce 
the old colony law that with it alone belonged 
the power to approve the incorporating of 
churches. And shortly after it began to harass 
these separating churches, and to enact laws to 
prevent the farther spread of reinvigorated Con- 
gregationalism unless of the Presbyterian type. 
Soon after 1741, the churches that drew away 
from the Saybrook system of government became 
known as Separate churches, and their members 

« This term came with the royal charter of 1662, but only 
gradually displaced the familiar " General Court." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 235 

as Separatists. When these people found that 
the Assembly would no longer approve their 
organizing as churches, they attempted, as sober 
dissenters from the worship established in the 
colony, to take the benefit of the Toleration Act. 
The Assembly next "resolved that those com- 
monly called Presbjrterians or Congregationalists 
should not take the benefit of that Act." ^^^ 

Here was a difficulty indeed. There was no 
place for the Separatist, yet there was need of 
him, and he felt sure there was. Furthermore, 
there were others who felt the need to the com- 
munity of his strong religious earnestness, though 
they might deplore his extravagances. His strong 
points were his assertion of the need of regen- 
eration, his reassertion of the old doctrines of 
justification by faith and of a personal sense 
of conversion, including, as a duty inseparable 
from church membership, the living of a highly 
moral life. The weakness of the Separatist lay in 
his assertion, first, that every man had an equal 
right to exercise any gifts of preaching or prayer 
of which he believed himself possessed ; secondly, 
of the value of visions and trances as proofs of 
spirituality ; and finally, of every one's freedom 
to withdraw from the ministry of any pastor who 
did not come up to his standard of ability or 
helpfulness. It followed that the Separatists in- 



236 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sisted upon the right to set up their own churches 
and to appoint their own ministers, although the 
latter might have only the doubtful qualifica- 
tion of feeling possessed with the gift of preach- 
ing. The Separatists organized between thirty 
and forty churches. Some of them endured but 
a short time, suffering disintegration through 
poverty. Others fell to pieces because of the 
unrestrained liberty of their members in their 
exhortations, in their personal interpretation of 
the Scriptures, and in their exercise of the right 
of private judgment, with the consequent har- 
vest of confusion, censoriousness, and discord 
that such practices created. In years later, 
many of the Separate churches, tired of the 
struggle for recognition and weighed down by 
their double taxation for the support of religion, 
buried themselves under the Baptist name. In- 
deed they " agreed upon aU points of doctrine, 
worship, and discipline, save the mode and sub- 
ject of baptism." A few Separatist churches, a 
dozen or more, continued the struggle for exist- 
ence until victory and toleration rewarded them. 
After the teachings of Jonathan Edwards had 
purified the churches and had driven out the 
Half -Way Covenant, against which the Separa- 
tists uttered their loudest protests, many of these 
reformers returned to the Established church. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 237 

In the practice of their principles, the Sepa- 
ratists, both as churches and as individuals, were 
often headstrong, officious, intermeddling, and 
censorious. They frequently stirred up ill-feeling 
and often just indignation. The rash and heed- 
less among them accused the conservative and 
regular clergy of Arminianism, when the latter, 
influenced by the Great Awakening, revived the 
doctrines of original sin, regeneration, and justi- 
fication by faith, but were careful to add to these 
Calvinistic dogmas admonitions to such practi- 
cal Christianity as was taught by Arminian 
preachers. The Separatists feared lest the doc- 
trine of works would cause men to stray too far 
from the doctrine of justification by faith alone, 
and they were often very intemperate in their 
denunciation of such " false teachers." It was a 
day of freer speech than now, and at least two 
of the great leaders in the revival had set a 
very bad example of calling names. Mr. White- 
field considered Mr. Tennant a " mighty chari- 
table man," yet here are a few of the latter's 
descriptive epithets, collected from one of his 
sermons and published by the Synod of Phila- 
delphia. Dr. Chauncey of Boston quotes them in 
an adverse criticism of the revival movement. 
Mr. Tennant speaks of the ministers thus : — 
hirelings, caterpillars, letter-learned Pharisees, Hypo- 



238 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

crites, Varlets, Seed of the Serpent, foolish Builders 
whom the Devil drives into the ministry, dead dogs 
that cannot bark, blind men, dead men, men pos- 
sessed of the devil, rebels and enemies of God.^°^ 

Naturally, party lines were soon drawn in 
New England. There were the Old Calvinists 
or Old Lights on the one side, and the Separa- 
tists and New Lights on the other. The New 
Lights were those within the churches who 
were moved by the revival and who desired to 
return to a more vital Christianity. In many re- 
spects they sympathized with the Separatists, 
although disapproving their extravagances. Li 
many churches, hounded by the opposition of 
the conservatives, the New Lights drew off and 
formed churches of their own. Thus while the 
Separatists may be compared to the early Eng- 
lish Separatists, the New Lights would corre- 
spond more to the Puritan party that desired 
reform within the Establishment. In the eight- 
eenth century movement, in Connecticut, the 
Old Lights held the political as well as the eccle- 
siastical control until, in the process of time, 
the New Lights gained an influential vote in the 
Assembly. Always, there was a good, sound 
stratum of Calvinism in both the Old and the 
New Light parties, and also among the Separa- 
tists, and the latter were generally included in 



' LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 239 

the New Light party, especially if spoken of 
from the point of view of political affiliations. 
The idiosyncrasies of the Separatists softened 
down and fell away in time. The Calvinism of 
Old and New Lights became a rallying ground 
whereon each, in after years, gathered about the 
standard of a reinvigorated church life ; and 
then the terms Old Light and New, with their 
suggestions of party meaning, whether religious 
or political, passed away. The term Separatist 
was retained for a while longer, merely to distin- 
guish the churches that preferred to be known 
as strict Congregationalist rather than as Pres- 
byterianized Congregationalist, or, for short, 
Presbyterian. 

From the time of the Great Awakening, there 
were nearly forty years of party contest over 
religious privileges, many of which had been 
previously accorded but which were speedily de- 
nied to the Separatists by a party dominant in 
the churches and paramount in the legislature ; 
by a party which was determined to bring the 
whole machinery of Church and State to crush 
the rising opposition to its control. Accordingly, 
it was nearly forty years before the Separatists 
received the same measure of toleration as that 
accorded to Episcopalian, Quaker, and Baptist. 
It was ten years before the New Lights in the 



240 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Assembly could, as a preliminary step to such 
toleration, force the omission from the revised 
statutes of all persecuting laws passed by the 
Old Light party. 

The keynote to the long struggle was sounded 
at a meeting of the General Consociation at 
Guilford, November 24, 1741. This was the 
first and only General Consociation ever called. 
It was convened at the expense of the colony, to 
consider her religious condition and the dangers 
threatening her from the excitement of the Great 
Awakening, from unrestrained converts, from 
rash exhorters, and from itinerant preachers, 
who took possession of the ministers' pulpits 
with little deference to their proper occupants. 
The General Consociation decided — 

that for a minister to enter another minister's parish, 
and preach or administer the seals of the Covenant, 
without the consent of, or in opposition to the set- 
tled minister of the parish, is disorderly,! notwith- 
standing if a considerable number of the people in 
the parish are desirous to hear another minister 
preach, provided the same be orthodox, and sound in 
the faith and not notoriously faulty in censuring other 
persons, or guilty of any scandal, we think it ordina- 
rily advisable for the minister of the parish to gratify 
them by giving his consent upon their suitable applir 
cation to him for it, unless neighboring ministers 
advise him to the contrary. -^^^ 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 241 

TMs was not necessarily an intolerant attitude, 
but it was hostile rather than friendly to the re- 
vival. It left neighboring ministers, that is, the 
Associations, if one among their number seemed 
to be too free in lending his pulpit to itinerant 
preachers, to curb his friendliness. Intolerance 
might come through this limitation, for the local 
Association might be prejudiced. If its advice 
were disregarded and disorders arose, the Con- 
sociation of the county could step in to settle 
difficulties and to condemn progressive men as 
well as fanatics. In its phrasing, this ecclesias- 
tical legislation left room for the ministrations 
of reputable itinerants, for among many, some 
of whom were ignorant and seH-caUed to their 
vocation, there were others whose abilities were 
widely recognized. Foremost among such men 
in Connecticut were Jonathan Edwards himself, 
Dr. Joseph Bellamy of Bethlem, trainer of many 
students in theology. Rev. Eleazer Whelock of 
Lebanon, Benjamin Pomroy of Hebron, and 
Jonathan Parsons of Lyme. Among itinerants 
coming from other colonies, the most noted, after 
Whitefield and Tennant, was Dr. Samuel Finley 
of New Jersey, later president of Princeton. 
Naturally men like these, who felt strongly the 
need of a revival and believed in supporting the 
\' Great Awakening," despite its excitement and 



242 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

errors, did not countenance the rash proceedings 
of many of the ignorant preachers, who ran 
about the colony seeking audiences for them- 
selves. 

The measures of the General Consociation were 
mild in comparison with the laws passed by the 
legislature in the following May. Governor Tal- 
cott, tolerant toward all religious dissenters, had 
recently died, and the conservative Jonathan Law 
of Milford was in the chair of the chief magis- 
trate. Governor Law had grown up among the 
traditions of that narrow ecclesiasticism which 
Lad always marked the territory of the old New 
Haven Colony. Moreover, the measures of the 
Consociation had been futile. One of the chief 
offenders against them was the Rev. James 
Davenport of Southold, Long Island, who not 
only went preaching through the colony, stirring 
up by his fanaticism, his visions, and his ecstasies, 
the common people, and finding fault with the 
regular clergy as " unconverted men," but who 
pushed his religious enthusiasm to great extremes 
by everywhere urging upon excitable young men 
the duty to become preachers like himself. He 
had introduced a kind of intoning at public 
meetings. This tended to create nervous irri- 
tability and hysterical outbursts of religious 
emotionalism, and these, Davenport taught his 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 243 

disciples, were the signs of God's approval of 
them and their devotion to Him. The govern- 
ment, watching these tumultuous meetings, con- 
cluded that it was time to show its ancient 
authority and to save the people from " divisions 
and contentions," the ecclesiastical constitution 
from destruction, and the ministry from "un- 
qualified persons entering therein." Accordingly, 
in May, 1742, the Assembly passed a series of 
laws,^^^ so severe that even ordained ministers 
were forbidden to preach outside their own par- 
ishes without an express invitation and under 
the penalty of forfeiting all benefits and all sup- 
port derived from any laws for the encouragement 
of religion ever made in the colony. The new 
enactments also forbade any Association to license 
a candidate to preach outside its own bounds 
or to settle any disputes beyond its own terri- 
tory.i^ These laws also permitted any parish 
minister to lodge with the society clerk a certifi- 
cate charging that a man had entered his parish 
and had preached there without first obtaining 
permission. Furthermore, there was no provision 
for confirming the truth or proving the falsity of 
such a statement. In connection with the certif- 
icate clause, it was also enacted that no assist- 
ant, or justice of the peace, should sign a warrant 
for collecting a minister's rates until he was sure 



244 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

that nowhere in the colony was there such a cer- 
tificate lodged against the minister making appli- 
cation for this mode of collecting his ministerial 
dues.^^^ Finally, the laws provided that a bond 
of <£100 should be demanded of a stranger, or 
visiting minister, who had preached without invi- 
tation, and that he should be treated as a vagrant, 
and sent by warrant "from constable to con- 
stable, out of the bounds of this Colony." ^^ 

These laws restrained both ordained Ministers 
and licensed candidates from preaching in other 
Men's Parishes without their and the Churches con- 
sent and wholly prohibited the Exhortations of Illit- 
erate Laymen. 

These laws were a high-handed infringement of 
the rights of conscience, and in a few years fell and 
buried with them the party that had enacted them. 
These were the laws which he (Davenport) exhorted 
his hearers to set at defiance ; and seldom, it must be 
acknowledged, has a more plausible occasion been 
found in New England to preach disregard for the 
law. 

The laws were framed to repress itinerants and 
exhorters through loss of their civil rights. By 
them, a man's good name was dishonored and he 
was deprived of all his temporal emoluments. By 
many, in their own day, the laws were regarded 
as contrary to scriptural commands, and to the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 245 

opinion and practice of all reformers and of all 
Puritans. These laws, with others that followed, 
were not warranted by the ecclesiastical constitu- 
tion of the colony, and could find no parallel 
either in England or in her other colonies. Trum- 
bull calls them — 

a concerted plan of the Old Lights or Arminians both 
among the clergy and civilians, to suppress as far as 
possible, all zealous Calvinistic preachers, to confine 
them entirely to their own pulpits ; and at the same 
time to put all the public odium and reproach upon 
them as wicked, disorderly men, unfit to enjoy the 
common rights of citizens. ^°^ 

Yet for these laws the Association of New 
Haven sent a vote of thanks to the Assembly 
when it convened in their city in the following 
faU. 

Jonathan Edwards opposed both the spirit of 
the General Consociation and also the legislation 
of the Assembly. He expressed his attitude 
toward the Great Awakening both at the time 
and later. In 1742 he wrote : — 

If ministers preached never so good a doctrine, 
and are never so laborious in their work, yet if at 
such a day as this they show their people that they 
are not well affected to this work [of revival], they 
will be very likely to do their people a great deal 
more hurt than good. 



246 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Six years later Edwards wrote a preface to his 
" An Hmnble Inquiry into the Qualifications for 
Full Communion in the Visible Church of God," 
a treatise severely condemning the Half- Way 
Covenant, and urging the revival of the early per- 
sonal account of conversion. In this preface he 
excuses his hesitation in publishing the work, 
on the ground that he feared the Separatists 
would seize upon his arguments to encourage 
them and strengthen them in many of their repre- 
hensible practices. These, Edwards reminds his 
reader, he had severely condemned in his earlier 
publications, notably in his " Treatise on Reli- 
gious Affections," 1746, and in his " Observa- 
tions and Reflections on Mr. Brainerd's Life." 
In his preface Edwards repeats his disapproval 
of the Separatist " notion of a jpure churcli by 
means of a spirit of discerning ; their censorious 
outcries against the standing ministers and 
churches in general, their lay ordinations^ their 
lay-preaching Skud public exhorting s and admin- 
istering sacraments ; and their self-complacent, 
presumptuous spirit." Edwards believed that 
enthusiasts, though unlettered, might exhort in 
private, and even in public religious gatherings 
might be encouraged to relate in a proper, ear- 
nest, and modest manner their religious experi- 
ences, and might also entreat others to become 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 247 

converted. He tnaintained that much of the 
criticism of an inert ministry was well founded, 
that much of the enthusiastic work of laymen 
and of the itinerants deserved to be recognized 
by the regular clergy, and that they ought to 
bestir themselves in furthering such enthusiasm 
among their own people. Edwards urged also 
his belief in the value of good works, not as mer- 
iting the reward of future salvation, but as mani- 
festing a heart stirred by a proper appreciation 
of God's attributes. Jonathan Edwards held 
firmly to the foundation principles of the conser- 
vative school, while he sympathized with and sup- 
ported the best elements in the revival movement. 
This attitude of Edwards eventually cost him 
his pastorate, for he judged it best to resign 
from the Northampton church, in 1750, because 
of the unpopularity arising from his repeated 
attacks upon the Half -Way Covenant and the 
Stoddardean view of the Lord's supper. Never- 
theless, it was the influence of Jonathan Ed- 
wards and of his following which gradually 
brought about a union of the religious parties, 
after the Separatists had given up their eccen- 
tricities and the leaven of Edwards' teachings 
had brought a new and invigorated life into the 
Connecticut churches. This preacher, teacher, 
and evangelist was remarkable for his powerful 



248 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

logic, his deep and tender feeling, his sincere 
and vivid faith. These characteristics urged on 
his resistless imagination, when picturing to 
his people their imminent danger and the awful 
punishment in store for those who continued at 
enmity with God. Of his work as a theologian, 
we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere. 

Some illustrations of church life in the trou- 
blous years following the Great Awakening will 
best set forth the confusion arising, the difficul- 
ties between Old and New Lights, and the hard- 
ships of the Separatists. Among the colony 
churches, the trials of three may be taken as 
typical, — the New Haven ^^^ church, the Can- 
terbury church,^^^ and the church of Enfield. ^^^ 
Nor can the story of the first two be told with- 
out including in it an account of later acts of 
the Assembly and of the attitude of the College 
during the years of the great schism. 

The pastor of the New Haven church was 
Mr. Noyes, whom many of his parishioners 
thought too noncommittal, erroneous, or pointless 
in discussing the themes which the itinerant 
preachers loved to dwell upon. Moreover, Mr. 
Noyes had refused to allow the Rev. George White- 
field to preach from his pulpit while on his mem- 
orable pilgrimage through New England. Mr. 
Noyes had also forbidden the hot-headed James 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 249 

Davenport to occupy it. As a result of their min- 
ister's actions, the New Haven church was divided 
in their estimate of their pastor. There were 
the friendly Old Lights and the hostile New. 
Neither party wished to carry their trouble be- 
fore the Consociation of New Haven county, for 
that had come at last to be a tribunal " whose 
decision was at that time considered Ji^c^iciaZ and 
final. ^'' Moreover, at the meeting of the Gen- 
eral Consociation at Guilford in November, 1741, 
it was known that Mr. Noyes had been a most 
active worker in favor of suppressing the New 
Light movement. Consequently the New Lights, 
though at the time in the minority, sought to 
find a way out from under the jurisdiction of 
the Saybrook Platform and its councils by de- 
claring that the church had nervQv formally been 
made a Consociated church. This was literally 
true, but the weight of precedent and their own 
observances were against them. Like other 
churches in the county, which had come slowly 
to the acceptance of the Saybrook councils as 
ecclesiastical courts, it had finally accepted them 
in their most authoritative character. Such being 
the case, the New Lights hesitated to appeal 
against their minister before a court presumably 
favorable to him. After the New Lights had de- 
clared the church not under the Saybrook system, 



250 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Mr. Noyes determined to take the vote of his 
people as to whether they considered themselves 
a Consociated church. But as he was a little 
fearful of the result of the vote, he secured the 
victory for his own faction by excluding the New 
Lights from voting. Thereupon, the New Lights 
took the benefit of the Toleration Act as " sober 
dissenters," and became a Separate church. The 
committee, appointed for the organization of the 
new church, declared that " they were reestab- 
lished as the original church." The benefit of 
the Toleration Act accorded to these New Light 
dissenters in New Haven, to some in Milf ord," and 
to several other reinvigorated churches in the 
southern part of the colony, roused the opposition 
of the Old Lights in the Assembly, and, as they 
counted a majority, they repealed the act in the 
following year, 1743. Three or four weeks after 
the New Haven New Lights had formed what 
was afterwards known as the North Church, the 
General Assembly met for its fall session in that 
city, and, as has been said, the New Haven 
Association immediately sent a vote of thanks 
for the stringent laws passed at the May meet- 
ing. The Court, moved by this indication of the 
popular feeling, by the importance of the church 

« The Milford church, like that of New Haven, suffered for 
many years from unjust exactions and taxation. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 251 

schism and its influence throughout the colony, 
by the conservative attitude of Yale College, and 
also by having among its delegates large num- 
bers of Old Lights, proceeded to enact yet more 
stringent measures than those of the preceding 
session. The result was that the North Church 
could hire no preacher until they could find one 
acceptable to the First Church and Society, be- 
cause the pastor elected by the First Church 
was the only lawfully appointed minister, since 
he owed his election to the majority votes of the 
First Society. Furthermore, the Court, in 1743, 
refused a special application of the North Church 
for permission to settle their chosen minister, 
and it was some five or six years before it ceased 
this particular kind of persecution and permitted 
the church to have a regular pastor. 

The story of this New Haven church extends 
beyond the time-limit of this chapter, but it is 
better completed here. The stringency of the 
laws only increased the bitterness of faction. In 
1745, feeling ran so high that a father refused 
to attend his son's funeral merely because they 
belonged to opposing factions, and an attempt to 
build a house of worship for this Separate church 
resulted in serious disturbances and in the charge 
of incendiarism. The New Lights preferred im- 
prisonment to the payment of taxes assessed 



252 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

for the benefit of the First Church. At last, 
in 1751, the October session of the General 
Assembly thought it best " for the good of the 
colony and for the peace and harmony of this 
and other churches" infected by its example, to 
advise that the differences within it be healed by 
a council to be composed of both Old and New 
Lights. ^^^ The suggestion bore no fruit, and a 
year later, the New Lights themselves again asked 
for a council, even offering to apologize to the 
First Church for their informality in separating 
from it, and for their part in the heated contro- 
versy that followed ; but Mr. Noyes induced his 
party to refuse to accede to the proposed con- 
ference. As the North Church had grown strong 
enough by this time to support a regular pastor, 
Mr. Bird accepted its call ; yet for six years 
longer, because the Assembly refused to divide 
the society, the New Lights were held to be mem- 
bers of the First Society and taxable for its sup- 
port. But in 1757, the New Lights gained the 
majority both in church and society, a majority of 
one. At once, the New Lights were released from 
taxes to the First Church. Now the dominant 
party, they attempted to pay back old scores, 
and accordingly demanded a division of both 
church and society property. The claim to the 
first was unfair, and they eventually abandoned it. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 253 

The churcli quarrel finally ceased in 1759, after 
a duration of eighteen years, and in 1760 Mr. 
Bird was formally installed with fitting honors. 

In the early days of the Great Awakening, 
the Canterbury church became divided into Old 
Lights and New, and a separation took place. 
Before the separation, a committee, who were ap- 
pointed to look up the church records, gave it as 
their opinion that the church was not and never 
had been pledged to the Saybrook Platform. 
Nevertheless, the very men who gave this decision 
became the leaders of the minority, who deter- 
mined to support the government in carrying 
out its oppressive laws of 1742. These laws had 
been passed while the committee were searching 
the church records. The majority of the church, 
incensed at having their liberty curtailed, pro- 
ceeded to defy the law by listening to lay ex- 
horters and to itinerants just as they had been 
in the habit of doing ever since the church 
had felt the quickening influences of the Great 
Awakening. This majority declared that it was 
" regular for this church to admit persons into 
this church that are in full communion with 
other churches and come regularly to this." This 
decision the minority characterized as unlawful 
according to the recent acts of the Assembly. 
The majority proceeded to argue the right of the 



254 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

majority in the church as above the right of 
the majority in the society, or parish, to elect the 
minister and to guide the church. In an attempt 
to satisfy both parties, candidates were tried, but 
they could not command a sufficient number of 
votes from either side to be located permanently. 
A meeting in 1743 of the Consociation of Wind- 
ham (to whose jurisdiction the Canterbury church 
belonged), together with a council of New 
Lights, brought temporary peace.^^* A candi- 
date was agreed upon ; but in a few months the 
New Lights became dissatisfied with him because 
of his approval of the Saybrook system of church 
government, his acceptance of the Half- Way 
Covenant, and other opinions. Controversy re- 
vived. The majority of the church withdrew, 
and for a while met in a private house for ser- 
vices, which were conducted by Solomon Paine 
or by some other layman. As a result, the Wind- 
ham Association passed a vote of censure against 
the seceders. Paine wrote a sharp retort, for 
which he was arrested, although ostensibly on the 
charge of unlawfully conducting public worship. 
He refused to give bonds and was committed to 
Windham jail in September, 1744. Such crowds 
flocked to the prison yard to hear him preach, 
and excitement ran so high, that the officer 
who had conducted his trial appeared before the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 255 

Assembly to protest that such legal proceed- 
ings did but tend to increase the disorders they 
were intended to cure. Accordingly, Paine was 
released in October. 

The interest of the whole colony was now 
centred on the defiant and determined Canter- 
bury Separate church, and the November meet- 
ing of the Windham Association had the schism 
under consideration, when Yale expelled two Can- 
terbury students whose parents were members 
of that church. 

In October, 1742, in order to protect the col- 
lege and the ministry and to deal a blow at the 
" Shepherd's Tent," a kind of school or academy 
which the New Lights had set up in New Lon- 
don for qualifying young men as exhorters, 
teachers, and ministers, the General Assembly 
had decided that no persons should presume to 
set up any coUege, seminary of learning, or any 
public school whatever, without special leave of 
the legislature. ^1^ The Court had also enacted 
that no one should take the benefit of the laws 
respecting the settlement and support of ministers 
tmless he were a graduate of Yale or Harvard, or 
some other approved Protestant university. It 
had also given explicit directions for the super- 
vision of the schools throughout the colony and 
of their masters' orthodoxy ,^i^ and had advised 



256 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Yale to take especial care that her students 
should not be contaminated by the New Lights. 
The Congregationalists had reported the " Shep- 
herd's Tent" as a noisy, tumultuous resort, because 
it was occasionally used for meetings, and had 
added that it was openly taught in that school 
that there would soon be a change in the gov- 
ernment, and that disobedience to the civil laws 
was not wrong. The Assembly, fearing that it 
might " train up youth in ill practices and prin- 
ciples," sought to put an end to it. As to the 
advice to the coUege, Yale was only too eager to 
follow it, and the same year expelled the saintly 
David Brainerd ^^^ for criticising the prayers of 
the college preachers as lacking in fervor. His 
offense was against a college law of the preced- 
ing year which forbade students to call their 
officers " h3rpocritical, carnal or unconverted 
men." The college, as the New Light move- 
ment increased, came to the further conclusion 
that — 

since the principal design of erecting this college was 
to train up a succession of learned and orthodox 
ministers by whose example people might be directed 
in the ways of religion and good order ... it 
would be a contradiction to the civil government to 
support a college to educate students to trample upon 
their own laws, to break up the churches which they 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 257 

establish and protect, especially since the General 
Assembly in May 1742, thought proper to give the 
governors of the college some special advice and di- 
rection upon that account, which was to the effect 
that proper care should be taken to prevent the schol- 
ars from imbibing those or like errors j and those 
who would not be orderly aiid submissive, should not 
be allowed the privileges of the college. 

Solomon Paine made answer to this law. With 
fine irony, he assured the people that in effect 
it forbade all students attending Yale College 
to go to any religious meeting even with their 
parents, should they be Separatists or New 
Lights, because* — 

no scholar upon the Lord's day or other day, under 
pretence of religion, shall go to any public or private 
meeting, not established or allowed by public author- 
ity or approved by the President, under penalty of a 
fine, confession, admonition or otherwise, according 
to the state and demerit of the offence, for fear that 
such preaching would end in " Quakerism," open in- 
fidelity, and the destruction of all Christian religion, 
and make endless divisions in the Christian church 
till nothing but the name of it would be left in the 
world.^i^ 

The two Cleveland brothers, John and Eben- 
ezer, had spent the fall vacation of 1744** with 
their parents at their home in Canterbury, and 

^ Commencement then came in September. 



258 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

by request of their elders had frequented the 
Separatist church there. On their return to Yale, 
the boys were admonished. They prof essed them- 
selves ready to apologize, but not in such words 
as the authorities thought sufficiently submissive, 
for the latter considered that the boys had broken 
the laws "of God, of the Colony and of the 
CoUege." ^^^ The boys very ably argued that, 
under the circumstances, there had been nothing 
else for them to do but to go to church with 
their parents when requested to do so, and held 
to their position. Yale expelled them, and there 
followed a sensation throughout the colony.^^o 

The leaders of the New Light party in the 
church of Canterbury were the nearest relatives 
and friends of the Cleveland boys, who came to 
be regarded as martyrs to their religion. Their 
treatment opened the question as to whether the 
steadily increasing numbers of New Lights were 
to lose for their children the benefit of the col- 
lege, that they helped to support. Must they, in 
order to send their sons to coUege, deprive them 
for four years of a '^ Gospel ministry " and lay 
them open to consequent grave perils? Why 
should New Lights be required to make such a 
sacrifice, or why, in vacation, should their children 
be required to submit to the ecclesiastical laws 
of the college ? If Episcopalians were permitted 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 259 

to have their sons, students at Yale, worship 
with them during the vacations, why should not 
the same liberty be granted to equally good 
citizens who differed even less in theological 
opinions ? 

Because of this coUege incident the difficulties 
in the Canterbury church attracted still more 
attention, but the end of the schism was at hand. 
In the month that witnessed the expulsion of the 
Clevelands, the minority of the original First 
Church voted that they were " The Church of 
Canterbury," and that those who had gone forth 
from among them in the January of the preced- 
ing year, 1743, as CongregationaHsts after the 
Cambridge Platform, had abrogated that of Say- 
brook, Consequently, to the minority lawfully 
belonged the election of the minister, the meeting 
house, and the taxes for ministerial support. 
Having thus fortified their position, they by a 
later vote declared : — 

That those in the society who are differently minded 
from us, and can't conscientiously join in ye settle- 
ment of Mr. James Coggeshall as our minister may 
have free liberty to enjoy their own opinion, and we 
are willing they should be released and discharged 
from paying anything to ye support of Mr. Cogges- 
hall, or living under his ministry any longer than 
until they have parish privileges granted them and 



260 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

are settled in church by themselves according to ye 
order of ye Gospel, or are lawfully released.^^^ 

At the repeal of the Toleration Act in 1743, a 
new method had been prescribed for sober dis- 
senters who wished to separate from the state 
church, and who were not of the recognized sects. 
The method of relief, thereafter, was for the 
dissenters, no matter how widely scattered in 
the colony, to appeal in person to the General 
Assembly and ask for special exemption. More- 
over, they were promised only that their requests 
would be listened to, and the Assembly was grow- 
ing steadily more and more averse to granting 
such petitions. As a result of this policy, the 
Separatist church of Canterbury did not have a 
very good prospect of immediate ability to accept 
the good-will of the First Church, which went 
even farther than the resolution cited above. The 
First Church offered to assist the Separatists in 
obtaining recognition from the Assembly. This 
offer the Separatists refused, preferring to sub- 
mit to double taxation, and thus to become a 
standing protest to the injustice of the laws. 

After the expulsion of the Clevelands, Yale 
made one more pronounced effort to discipline 
its students and to repress the growth of the lib- 
eral spirit. She attempted to suppress a reprint 
of Locke's essay upon " Toleration " which the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 261 

senior class had secretly printed at their expense. 
An attempt to overawe the students and to make 
them confess on pain of expulsion was met by 
the spirited resistance of one of the class, who 
threatened to appeal to the King in Council if 
his diploma were denied him. His diploma was 
granted ; and some years after, when the senti- 
ment in the colony had further changed, the col- 
lege gave the Cleveland brothers their degree. 

The church in Enfield ^^^ had an experience 
somewhat similar to that of Canterbury, to which 
it seems to have looked for spiritual advice and 
example. The Enfield Separate church was prob- 
ably organized between 1745 and 1751, though its 
first known documents are a series of letters to 
the Separate church in Canterbury covering the 
period 1751-53. These letters sought advice 
in adjusting difficulties that were creating great 
discord in the church, which had already separated 
from the original church of Enfield, In 1762, 
the Enfield Separatists, once more in harmony, 
renewed their covenant, and called Mr. Nathaniel 
Collins to be their pastor. They struggled for 
existence until 1769, when they appealed to the 
General Assembly for exemption from the rates 
still levied upon them for the benefit of the First 
Society. They asked for recognition, separation, 
and incorporation as the Second Society and 



262 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Church of Enfield. They were refused ; but in 
May of the following year, — a year to be marked 
by special legislation in behalf of dissenters, — 
the Enfield Separatists again memorialized the 
Assembly, and in response were permitted to 
organize their own church.^^s This permission, 
however, was limited to the memorialists, eighty 
in number; to their children, if within six 
months after reaching their majority they filed 
certificates of membership in this Separate church; 
and to strangers, who should enter the new so- 
ciety within one year of their setthng in the town. 
The history of the Enfield Separatists gives 
glimpses of the frequent double discord between 
the New Lights and the Old and among the New 
Lights themselves. The period of the Enfield 
persecution extended over years when, elsewhere 
in the colony. Separatists had obtained recogni- 
tion of their claims to toleration, if only through 
special acts and not by general legislation. 

If churches suffered from the severe ecclesias- 
tical laws of 1742-43, individuals did also. 
Under the law which considered traveling min- 
isters as vagrants, and which the Assembly had 
made still more stringent by the additional pen- 
alty " to pay down the cost of transportation," so 
learned a man as the Rev. Samuel Finley, after- 
wards president of Princeton, was imprisoned 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 263 

and driven from the colony because lie insisted 
upon preaching in Connecticut. Indeed, it was 
his persistence in returning to the colony that 
caused the magistrates to increase the severity 
of the law.^* When the ministers John Owen 
of Groton and Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron, as 
well as the itinerant James Davenport of South- 
old, criticised the laws, all of them were at once 
arraigned for the offense before the Assembly. 
There was so much excitement over the arrest of 
Pomeroy and Davenport that it threatened a 
riot. All three men were discharged, but Daven- 
port was ordered out of the colony for his itinerant 
preaching and for teaching resistance to the civil 
laws. Pomeroy, his friend, had declared that the 
laws forbade any faithful minister, or any one 
faithful in civil authority, to hold office. Events 
bore out his statement, for ministers were 
hounded, and the New Light justices of the peace, 
and other magistrates, were deprived of office. 
Pomeroy, himself, was discharged only to be com- 
plained of for irregular preaching at Colchester 
and in punishment to be deprived of his salary 
for seven years.^^s The Rev. Nathan Stone of 
Stonington was disciplined for his New Light 
sympathies. Philemon Robbins of Branford was 
deposed for preaching to the Baptists at Walling- 
ford. This last procedure was the work of the 



264 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Consociation of New Haven county, which thereby 
began a six years' contest, 1741-47, with the 
Branford church. In 1745 this church attempted 
to throw off the yoke of the Consociation by 
renouncing the Saybrook Platform. 

During these years of persecution, the opposi- 
tion to the Old Light policy was gradually gain- 
ing effective power, although the college had 
expelled Brainerd, and Mr. Cook, one of the Yale 
corporation, had found it expedient to resign be- 
cause of his too prominent part in the formation 
of the North Church of New Haven. The Old 
Lights in the legislature of 1743 passed the 
repeal of the Toleration Act because the New 
Lights had no commanding vote ; but they were 
increasing throughout the colony. Fairfield East 
Consociation had licensed Brainerd the year that 
Yale expelled him. Twelve ministers of New 
London and Windham county had met to approve 
the revival, notwithstanding the repeal of the 
Toleration Act and the known antagonism of 
the Windham Association to the Separatists. 
Windham Consociation and that of Fairfield 
East favored the revival. Large numbers of 
converts were made in these districts, and many 
also in Hartford county. In the New Haven dis- 
trict the spirit of antagonism and of persecution 
was strongest. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 265 

It was in accordance with the laws of 1742-43 
that Mack, Shaw, and Pyrlseus, Moravian 
missionaries, on a visit in 1744 to their mission 
stations among the Indians in Connecticut, were 
seized as Papists and hustled from sheriff to 
sheriff for three days until "the Governor of 
Connecticut honorably dismissed them," though 
their accusers insisted upon their being bound 
over under a penalty of XI 00 to keep the law. 
" Being not fully acquainted with all the special 
laws of the country, they perceived a trap laid 
for them and thought it prudent to retire to 
Shekomeko" (Pine Plains, Dutchess County, 
N. Y.). Missionaries sent out from Nazareth and 
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had established this 
sub-centre for work in New York and Connecti- 
cut, and in the latter colony, in 1740-43, had 
made Indian converts at Sharon, Salisbury In- 
dian Pond, near Newtown, and at Pachgatgoch, 
two miles southwest of Kent. Here was their 
principal station in Connecticut. They had made, 
in all, some twenty converts among the Indians, 
and had reclaimed several of their chief men from 
drunkenness and idleness. Moravian principles 
forbade these missionaries to take an oath. Con- 
sequently, the greed of traders, the rivalry of 
creeds, together with the belief that there was 
something wrong about men who would not swear 



266 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

allegiance to King George, — notwithstanding 
their willingness to affirm it, and notwithstanding 
their denial of the Pretender, — gave rise to the 
conviction that they must be Papists ° in league 
with the French and their Indian allies. Accord- 
ingly both magistrates and ministers arrested the 
missionaries, and hurried them before the court 
at Poughkeepsie or at New Milford. Though the 
governors of both states recognized the value of 
the mission work, popular feeling ran so high 
that New York, in September, 1744, passed a 
law requiring them to take the oaths prescribed or 
to leave the country, and also commanding that 
"vagrant Teachers, Moravians, and disguised 
Papists should not preach or teach in public or 
private" without first obtaining a license. In 
Connecticut, as has been said, the laws of 1742- 
1743 were enforced against them ; later, when 
during the Old French War groundless rumors 
of their intrigues with hostile Indians were circu- 
lated against them, a vain hunt was made for 
three thousand stands of arms that were said to 
be secreted in their missions. The severe per- 
secution in New York had driven these mission- 
aries into Pennsylvania and into Connecticut, but 

« And this notwithstanding their -willingness to include in 
their affirmation a denial of Mariolatry, purgatory, and other 
vital Komish tenets. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 267 

these rumors of intrigue broke up their work 
and caused the abandonment of their stations in 
the latter colony. Some of these, such as Kent, 
Sharon, and Salisbury, were revived in 1749- 
1762, at the request of the English settlers as 
well as of the Indian converts. ^^ 

Returning to the main story of the progress 
of dissent, we find that in 1746 the General 
Court of Connecticut felt obliged to safeguard 
the Establishment by the passage of a law en- 
titled, " Concerning who shall vote in Society 
Meetings." ^^7 Its preamble states that persons 
exempted from taxes for the support of the estab- 
lished ministry, because of their dissenting from 
the way of worship and ministry of the Presby- 
terian, Congregational, or Consociated churches, 
" ought not to vote in society meetings with re- 
spect to the support or to the building and main- 
taining of meeting houses," yet some persons, 
exempted as aforesaid, " have adventured to vote 
and act therein," as there was no express law to 
the contrary. The new law forbade such voting, 
and limited the ecclesiastical ballot to members 
of the Establishment who " were persons of full 
age and in full communion with the church," and 
to other unexempted persons who held a freehold 
rated at fifty shillings per year, or personal pro- 
perty to the value of forty pounds. This law was 



268 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

just, in that it excluded all dissenters who had 
received exemption from Presbyterian rates. It 
included all others having the property qualifi- 
cation, whether they wanted to vote or not. That 
it was felt to be a necessity is a witness to the 
increasing recognition of the strength of the dis- 
senting element. 

In 1747, the Consociation of Windham sent 
forth a violent pamphlet describing the Separa- 
tists as a people in revolt against God and in 
rebellion against the Church and government. 
But the tide of public opinion was turning, and 
popular sentiment did not support the writers of 
this pamphlet. Moreover, the secular affairs of 
the colony were calling minds away from reli- 
gious contentions as the stress of the Old French 
War was more and more felt. In 1748, ventur- 
ing upon the improvement in public sentiment, 
Solomon Paine sent to the legislature a memorial 
signed by three hundred and thirty persons and 
asking for a repeal of such laws as debarred people 
from enjoying the liberty " granted by God and 
tolerated by the King."^28 j^ ^g^g known to these 
memorialists that a revision of the laws, first 
undertaken in 1742, was nearing completion, and 
their desire was that all obnoxious or unfair 
acts should be repealed. The petition met with 
a sharp rebuff, and, as a punishment, three mem- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 269 

bers were expelled from the Assembly for being 
Separatists. But by such measures the Old 
Lights were overreaching themselves. A mark 
of the turning of public opinion was given this 
same year, when, upon the request of his old 
church in Hebron, the church vouching for his 
work and character, the Assembly restored to 
his ministerial rights and privileges the Rev. 
James Pomeroy. The unjust laws of 1742-43 
and of the following years were never formally 
repealed, but were quietly dropped out of the 
revision of the laws issued in 1750. 

Thenceforth the people began to tolerate vari- 
ety in religious opinions with better grace, and 
the dominant authoritative rule of the Saybrook 
Platform began to wane, though for twenty years 
more it strove to assert its power. In 1755, the 
Middletown Association advised licensing can- 
didates for the ministry for a term of years. The 
idea was to prevent errors arising from the 
personal interpretation of the Scriptures and in- 
difference to dogmatic truths of religion from 
creeping into the churches. About the same 
time, the Consociation of New Haven invited 
their former member, Mr. Robbins of Branford, 
to sit with them again at the installation of Mr. 
Street of East Haven. Conciliatory acts and 
measures such as these originated with both the 



270 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Old and New Lights, and did much to lessen the 
division between them. Discussion turned more 
and more from personal opinions, character, and 
abilities, to considerations of doctrinal points. The 
churches found more and more in common, while 
worldly interests left the masses with only a half- 
hearted concern in church discussions. 

To summarize the effect of the Great Awaken- 
ing as evidenced by the great schism and its results 
thus far considered : The strength of the revival 
movement, as such, was soon spent. The number 
of its converts throughout New England was esti- 
mated by Dr. Dexter to be as high as forty or 
fifty thousand, while later writers put it as low 
as ten or twelve thousand, out of the entire pop- 
ulation of three hundred thousand souls. The 
years 1740-42 were the years of the Great Awak- 
ening, and after them there were comparatively 
few conversions during any given time. Even in 
Jonathan Edwards's own church in Northampton 
there were no converts between 1744 and 1748. 
The influence of the Great Awakening was not, 
however, transient, nor was it confined to the 
Congregational churches, whether of the Cam- 
bridge or the Saybrook type. Baptist churches 
felt the impetus, receiving many directly into their 
membership, and also indirectly, from those Sep- 
aratist churches which found themselves too weak 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 271 

to endure. Episcopalians added to their num- 
bers from among religiously inclined persons who 
sought a calm and stable church home unaffected 
by church and political strife. The Great Awaken- 
ing created the Separatist movement and the New 
Light party, revitalized the EstabKshed churches, 
invigorated others, and through the persecution 
and counter-persecution that the great schism 
produced, taught the Connecticut people more 
and more of religious tolerance, and so brought 
them nearer to the dawn of religious liberty. 
Such liberty could only come after the downfall 
of the Saybrook Platform, and after a complete 
severance of Church and State. The last could 
not come for three quarters of a century. Mean- 
while the leaven of the great revival would be 
working. On its intellectual side, the Great 
Awakening led to the discussion of doctrinal 
points, an advance from questions of church 
polity. These themes of pulpit and of religious 
press led, finally, to a live interest in practical 
Christianity and to a more genial religion than 
that which had characterized the Puritan age. 
The Half -Way Covenant had been killed. Edu- 
cation had received a new impulse, Christian mis- 
sions were reinvigorated, and the monthly concert 
of prayer for the conversion of the world was in- 
stituted.129 True, French and Indian wars, the 



272 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

Spanish entanglement with its West Indian ex- 
pedition, and the consuming political interests 
of the years 1745-83, shortened the period of 
energetic spiritual hfe, and ushered in another 
half century of religious indifference. But during 
that half century the followers of Edwards and 
Bellamy were to develop a less severe and more 
winning system of theology, and the fellowship 
of the churches was to suggest the colonial 
committees of safety as a preliminary to the 
birth of a nation, founded upon the inherent 
equahty of all men before the law. This concep- 
tion of political and civil liberty was to develop 
side by side with a clearer notion of the value of 
religious freedom. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE ABKOGATION OF THE SAYBROOK 
PLATFORM 

That house cannot stand. — Mark iii, 25. 
The times change and we change with them. — Proverb. 

The omission of all persecuting acts from the 
revision of the laws in 1750 was evidence that 
the worst features of the great schism were pass- 
ing, that public opinion as a whole had grown 
averse to any great severity toward the Separa- 
tists as dissenters. But the continuance in the 
revised statutes of the Saybrook Platform as 
the legalized constitution of the " Presbyterian, 
Congregational or Consociated Church," and the 
almost total absence of any provision for exempt- 
ing Congregational Separatists from the taxes 
levied in its behalf, operated, notwithstanding 
the many acts of conciliation between these two 
types of churches, to revive at times the milder 
forms of persecution. And such injustice would 
continue until the Separatists as a body were 
legally exempted from ecclesiastical rates, and 
until the Saybrook Platform was either formally 



274 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

annulled or, in its turn, quietly dropped from 
the statute book. But henceforth, the measure 
of intolerance would be determined more by local 
sentiment and less by the text of the law, more 
by the proportion of Old Lights to New in a 
given community. And the measure of tolera- 
tion must eventually take the form of legalized 
rights rather than of special privileges, and this 
through a growing appreciation of the value 
of the Separatists as citizens. The abrogation of 
the Saybrook Platform might follow upon a re- 
affiliation of all Presbyterians and all Congre- 
gationaKsts in a new spirit of mutual tolerance 
and helpfulness. Whatever the events or influ- 
ences that should bring about this reaffiliation, 
the new bonds of church life would necessarily 
lack the stringency of the palmy days of Say- 
brook autocratic rule. Consequently when such 
a time arrived, the Platform, at least in its let- 
ter, could be dropped from the law-book. The 
old colonial laws for the support of religion would 
still suffice to protect and exalt the Establish- 
ment, and to preserve it as the spiritual arm of 
the State. It so happened that toleration was 
granted to the Separatists at the beginning of 
the Revolutionary struggle, and that the abroga- 
tion of the Saybrook Platform followed close 
upon its victorious end. Many influences, both 



LIBERTY m CONNECTICUT 275 

religious and secular, had their part in bringing 
about these progressive steps toward religious 
freedom^ toward full and free liberty of con- 
science. 

The revision of the laws completed in 1750 
had been under consideration since 1742. At 
the beginning of the great schism, the important 
task had been placed in the hands of a com- 
mittee consisting of Roger Wolcott, Thomas 
Fitch, Jonathan Trumbull, and John Bulkley, 
Judge of the Superior Court. The first three 
names are at once recognized as Connecticut's 
chief magistrates in 1750-54, 1754-66, 1769- 
1783, respectively. During the eight years that 
the revision was in the hands of this conunit- 
tee, the church quarrel had passed its crisis ; the 
Old Lights had slowly yielded their political, as 
well as their ecclesiastical power ; and their con- 
trolling influence was rapidly passing from them. 
The Old French "War, with its pressing affairs, 
had so affected the life of the colony as to lessen 
religious fervor, weaken ecclesiastical animosi- 
ties, and, at the same time, to develop a broader 
conception of citizenship. 

English influence, moreover, had modified the 
ecclesiastical laws in the revision of 1750. The 
Connecticut authorities, when imbued with the 
persecuting spirit, did not always stop to distin- 



276 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

guish between the legally exempt Baptist dis- 
senters and the unexempted Separatists. This 
was due in part to the fact that many of the 
latter, like the church of which Isaac Backus 
was the leader, went over to the Baptist denomi- 
nation. The two sects held similar opinions upon 
all subjects, except that of baptism. It was 
much easier to obtain exemption from ecclesias- 
tical taxes by showing Baptist certificates than 
to run the risk of being denied exemption when 
appeal was made to the Assembly, either indi- 
vidually or as a church body, the form of petition 
demanded of these Separatists. The persecuted 
Baptists at once turned to England for assist- 
ance, and to the Committee of English Dissenters, 
of which Dr. Avery was chairman. 

This committee had been appointed to look 
after the interests of all dissenters, both in Eng- 
land and in her colonies, for the English dissent- 
ing bodies were growing in numbers and in 
political importance. To this committee the Con- 
necticut Baptists reported such cases of persecu- 
tion as that of the Saybrook Separatist church, 
which in 1744 suffered through the arrest of 
fourteen of its members for " holding a meeting 
contrary to law on God's holy Sabbath day." 
These fourteen people were arraigned, fined, and 
driven on foot through deep mud twenty-five 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 277 

miles to New London, where they were thrust 
into prison for refusing to pay their fines, and 
left there without fire, food, or beds. There they 
were kept for several weeks, dependent for the 
necessaries of life upon the good will of neigh- 
boring Baptists.^^^ The Separatists could report 
the trials of the Separate church of Canterbury, 
of that of Enfield, of the First Separate church 
of Milford, hindered in the exercise of its legal 
rights for over twenty years, and they could also 
recount the persecution of churches and of indi- 
viduals in Wethersfield, Windsor, Middletown, 
Norwich, and elsewhere. Upon receiving such 
reports. Dr. Avery had written, " I am very sorry 
to hear of the persecuting spirit which pre- 
vails in Connecticut. ... If any gentleman that 
suffers by these coercive laws will apply to me, 
I will use my influence that justice be done 
them." The letter was read in the Assembly, 
and is said to have influenced the committee of 
revision, causing them to omit the persecuting 
laws of 1742-44, in order that they might no 
longer be quoted against the colony. Governor 
Law replied to Dr. Avery that the disorders 
and excesses of the dissenters had compelled the 
very legislation of which they complained. To 
which Dr. Avery returned answer that, while 
disorders were to be regretted, civil penalties 



278 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

were not their proper remedy. TMs was a senti- 
ment that was gaining adherents in the colony 
as well as in England. Among other instances 
of persecution among the Baptists was that of 
Samuel, brother of Isaac Backus, who in 1752, 
with his mother and two members of the Bap- 
tist society, was imprisoned for thirteen days 
on account of refusal to pay the ecclesiastical 
taxes.i^i Another was that of Deacon Nathaniel 
Drake, Jr.,!^^ Qf Windsor, who, in 1761, refused 
to pay the assessment for the Second Society's 
new meeting-house. For six years the magistrates 
wrestled with the Deacon, striving to collect 
the assessment. But the Deacon was obstinate, 
and rather than pay a tax of which his con- 
science disapproved, he preferred to be branded 
in the hand. Outside of Baptist or Separatist, 
there were other afflicted churches, such as that 
of Wallingford,^^ where the New Lights could 
complain that, in 1758, the Consociation of New 
Haven county had refused to install the can- 
didate of the majority, Mr. Dana; and had 
attempted to discipline the twelve ministers who 
had united in ordaining him ; and that as a result 
the twelve were forced to meet in an Association 
by themselves for fourteen years, or until 1772. 
The Separatists attempted to obtain exemp- 
tion through petitions to the Assembly, trusting 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 279 

that, as each new election sent more and more 
New Lights to that body, each prayer for re- 
lief would be more favorably received. One of 
the most important of these petitions was that 
of 1753, when more than twenty Separatist 
churches, representing about a thousand mem- 
bers, united in an appeal wherein they com- 
plained of the distraining of their goods to meet 
assessments and taxes for the benefit of the 
Established churches ; of imprisonments, with 
consequent deprivation of comforts for their 
families ; and of the danger to the civil peace 
threatened by these evils. The Assembly refused 
redress. Whereupon the petition was at once 
reconstructed,*^ and, with authentic records and 
testimonies, to which Governor Fitch set the seal 
of Connecticut, was sent, in 1756, ^^^ to London. 
The Committee in behalf of Dissenters were to 
see that it was presented to the King in Council. 
The petition charged violation of the colony's 
charter, excessive favoritism, and legislation in 
favor of one Christian sect to the exclusion of 
all others and to the oppression, even, of some. 
The English Committee thought that these charges 
might anger the King and endanger the Con- 
necticut charter. Accordingly, they again wrote 

« As a petition " To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in 
Council." 



280 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to tlie Connecticut authorities, remonstrating with 
them because of their treatment of dissenters. 
At the same time, they sent a letter advising the 
petitioners to show their loyalty to the best in- 
terests of the colony by withdrawing their com- 
plaint. These dissenters were further advised to 
begin at once a suit in the Connecticut courts 
for their rights, and with the intent of carrying 
their case to England, should the colony fail to 
do them justice. Legal proceedings were imme- 
diately begun, but were allowed to lapse, partly 
because of the press of secular interests, for the 
colonial wars, the West India expedition, and 
other affairs of great moment claimed attention, 
and partly because there were indications that 
the government would regard the Separatists 
more favorably. 

In the colony itself a change was taking place 
through which the college was to go over to the 
side of the New Lights. In 1755, President 
Clap had established the College Church in order 
to remove the students from the party strife 
that was still distracting the churches. In order 
to avoid a conflict over the matter, he refused to 
ask the consent of the Assembly, claiming the 
right of an incorporated college and the prece- 
dent of the English universities, since, in 1745, 
the Assembly had formally incorporated " The 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 281 

President and Fellows of Yale College," vesting 
in them all the usual powers appertaining to 
colleges. In the same year, also, the initial step 
toward establishing a chair of divinity had been 
taken, and it became the first toward the found- 
ing of the separate CoUege Church. President 
Clap always maintained that " the great design 
of founding Yale was to educate ministers in 
our way," ^^ and the chair of divinity had been 
established in answer to the suggestion of the 
Court that the coUege take measures to protect its 
students from the New Light movement. Presi- 
dent Clap was hurried on in his policy of estab- 
lishing the CoUege Church both by his desire to 
separate the students from the New Light con- 
troversy in Mr. Noyes's church, where they were 
wont to attend, and by an appeal to him, in 
1753, of Rector Punderson, the priest recently 
placed in charge of the Church-of-England mis- 
sion in New Haven. The rector had two sons 
in college, and he asked that they and such other 
collegians as were Episcopalians might be per- 
mitted to attend the Church-of-England services. 
President Clap refused to give the desired per- 
mission, except for communion and some special 
services, and he at once proceeded to organize 
a church within the coUege. The trustees and 
faculty upheld him, but the Old Lights, then 



282 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

about two-thirds of the deputies to the Assem- 
bly, opposed his course of action, and succeeded 
in taking away the annual grant that, at the in- 
corporation of the college, had been given to 
Yale. After this, they regarded President Clap 
as a " political New Light," but as the latter 
party increased in the Assembly, and became 
friendly to Yale, the college gradually reinstated 
itself in the favor of the legislature. 

If in his petitions the Separatist demanded 
only exemption, only that much toleration, in 
his controversial writings he ably argued the 
right of all men to full liberty of conscience. 
Unfortunately, the ignorance and follies of many 
of the Separatists, when battling in advance of 
their age for religious liberty, militated against 
the logic of their position. Harmony among 
themselves would have commended and strength- 
ened their cause, and given it a forceful dignity. 
They blundered, as did their English predeces- 
sors of a much earlier date, by laying too much 
stress upon the individual, upon his interpreta- 
tions of Scripture, and upon his right of criti- 
cism. Much of their work in behalf of religious 
liberty took the form of pamphleteering. Again, 
it was their misfortune that the Establishment 
could boast of writers of more ability and of 
greater training. Yet the Separatists had some 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 283 

bold thinkers, some able advocates, and, as time 
wore on, and their numbers were increased and 
disciplined, the strength and quality of their peti- 
tions and published writings improved greatly. 
Sometimes these dissenters were helped by the 
theories of their opponents, which, when pushed 
to logical conclusions and practical application, 
often became strong reasons for granting the 
very liberty the Separatists sought. Sometimes 
an indignant member of the Establishment, 
smarting under its interference, was roused to 
forceful expression of the broader notions of 
personal and church liberty that were slowly 
spreading through the community. A few ex- 
tracts from typical pamphlets of the time will 
give an idea of the atmosphere surrounding the 
disputants. 

In 1749, a tract was issued from the New 
London press by one E. H. M. A. entitled, 
" The present way of the Country in maintain- 
ing the Gospel ministry by a Public Rate or 
Tax is Lawful, Equitable, and agreable to the 
Gospel ; As the same is argued and proved in 
way of Dialogue between John Queristicus and 
Thomas Casuisticus, near Neighbors in the 
County." In answer to this, and for the purpose 
of vindicating the religious practices and opin- 
ions of the Separatists, Ebenezer Frothingham, a 



284 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Separatist minister, took the field in 1750 as the 
champion of religious liberty. His book of four 
hundred and fifty pages had for its title "The 
Articles of Faith and Practice with the Cove- 
nant that is confessed by the Separate Churches 
of Christ in this land. Also a discourse." So 
influential and so characteristic was this work, 
that rather long extracts from it are permis- 
sible, and, with a few arguments from other 
writers, will serve to reflect the thought and feel- 
ing of the day, and will best give the point of 
view of both dissenter and member of the Estab- 
lishment, of liberal and conservative ; for the 
pamphlet of the period was apt to be religious 
or political, or more likely both. 

Frothingham, speaking of the injustice done 
the Separatists, writes ; — 

That religion that hath not authority and power 
enough within itself to influence its professors to sup- 
port the same, without Bargains, Taxes or Rates, and 
the Civil Power, and Prisons, &c. is a false Religion. 
. • . Now, if the Religion generally professed and 
practiced in this land, be the Religion of Jesus 
Christ, why do they strain away the Goods of the 
Professors of it, and waste their substance to support 
it ? which has frequently been done. And which is 
worse, why do they take their Neighbors (that don't 
worship with them, but have solemnly covenanted to 
worship God in another place) by the throat, and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 285 

cast them into Prison ? or else for a Rate of Twenty 
Shillings, Three or Six Pounds, send away Ten, 
Twenty, or Thirty Pounds worth of Goods, and set 
them up at Vendue ; where they will generally as- 
semble the poor, miserable Drunkard, and the awful 
foul-mouthed Swearer, and the bold, covetous. Blas- 
phemous Scoffer at things Sacred and Divine, and 
the Scum of Society for the most part will be to- 
gether, to count and make their Games about the 
Goods upon Sale, and at the owners of them too, and 
at the Holy Religion that the Owners thereof pro- 
fess ; and at such Vendues there are rarely any solid, 
thinking men to be found there ; or if there are any 
such present, they do not care to act in that oppres- 
sive way of supporting the Gospel. Such men find 
something is the matter. God's Vice-regent in their 
Breasts, tells them it is not equal to make such 
Havock of men's Estates, to support a Worship they 
have nothing to do with ; yes, the Consciences of 
these persons will trouble them so that they had 
rather pay twice their part of the Rates, and so let 
the oppressed Party go free. 

Upon the difficulty of securing collectors, 
Frothingham remarks ; " If it be such a good 
Cause, and no good men in the Society, to under- 
take that good Work, surely then such a Society 
is awfully declined, if that is the case." Froth- 
ingham quotes the Suttler of the " Dialogue " 
as saying, " We have good reason to believe, 
that if this Hedge of human Laws, and Enclo- 



286 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sure of Order round the Church, were wholly 
broken down, and taken away, there would not 
be, ('tis probable) one regular visible Church 
left subsisting in this land, fifty years hence, or, 
at most, not many." To this, Frothingham re- 
plied that if by the " visible church, here spoken 
of," is meant " Anti-Christ's Church, we should 
be apt to believe it," for " it needs Civil Power, 
Eates and Prisons to support it. But if the 
Gospel Church, set up at first without the aid 
of civil power could continue and spread, why 
can't it subsist without the Civil Power now as 
well as then ? " " To this day," this author adds, 
" the true Church of Christ is in bondage, by 
usurping Laws that unrighteously intrude upon 
her ecclesiastical Rights and civil Enjoyments ; 
. . . And Wo ! Wo ! to New England ! for the 
God-provoking Evil, which is too much indulged 
by the great and mighty in the Land. The cry 
of oppression is gone up into the ears of the 
Lord God of Sabbaoth." 

Frothingham thrusts at the payment or sup- 
port of the ministry by taxation in his assertion 
that " there is no instance of Paul's entering 
into any civil Contract or Bargain, to get his 
wages or Hire, in all his Epistles ; but we have 
frequent accounts of his receiving free contribu- 
tions." '^^ (Here, he but repeats a part of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 287 

Baptist protest in the Wightman-Bulkley debate 
of 1707.) Frothingham states that " the scope 
and burden of it [his book] were to shew . . . 
both from scripture and reason that the stand- 
ing ministers and Churches in this Colony [Con- 
necticut] are not practising in the rule of God's 
word." 

The book at once commanded the attention 
desired by its author. It drew upon Froth- 
ingham the concentrated odium of the Rev. 
Moses Bartlett, pastor of the Portland church, in 
a fifty-four-paged pamphlet entitled " False and 
Seducing Teachers." Among such Bartlett in- 
cludes and roundly denounces Frothingham and 
the two Paines, Solomon and his brother Elisha. 
Elisha Paine had removed to Long Island. Re- 
turning to Canterbury for some of his household 
goods, he was seized by the sheriff for rates over- 
due, and thrown into Windham jail.^^'^ After 
waiting some weeks for his release, he sent tbe 
following bold and spicy letter to the Canterbury 
assessors : — 

To you gentlemen, practloners of the law from 
your prisoner in Windham gaol, because his con- 
science will not let him pay a minister that is set up 
by the laws of Connecticut, contrary to his conscience 
and consent. 

The Roman Emperor was called Pontifex Maxi- 



288 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

mus, because he presided over civil and ecclesiastical 
affairs ; which is the first beast that persecuted the 
Christians that separated from the Established reli- 
gion, which they call the holy religion of their fore- 
fathers ; and by their law, fined, whipped, imprisoned 
and killed such as refused obedience thereto. We 
all own that the Pope or Papal throne is the second 
beast, because he is the head of the ecclesiastical, and 
also meddles in civil affairs. . . . He also compels 
all under him to submit to his worship, decrees and 
laws, by whips, fines, prisons, fire and fagots. Now 
what your prisoner requests of you is a clear distinc- 
tion between the Ecclesiastical Constitution of Con- 
necticut, by which I am now held in prison, and the 
aforesaid two thrones or beasts in the foundation, con- 
stitution and support thereof. For if by Scripture and 
reason you can show they do not aU stand on the 
throne mentioned in Psalm xciv : 20,*^ but that the 
latter is founded on the Rock Christ Jesus, I will con- 
fess my fault and soon clear myself of the prison. 
But if this Constitution hath its rise from that throne 
. . . better is it to die for Christ, than to live against 
him. 

From an old friend to this civil constitution, and 
long your prisoner. Elisha Paine. 

Windham Jail, Dec. 11, 1752. 

In 1744, in addition to Ms memorials and let- 
ters, Solomon Paine had published " A Short 

« "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, 
which frameth mischief by law ? " 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 289 

View of the Constitution of the Church of Christ, 
and the Difference between it and the Church 
Established in Connecticut." Frothingham, when 
alluding to Moses Bartlett's denunciation of him- 
self and Paine, refers to this book in his remark, 
" Elder Paine and myseK have labored to prove, 
and I think it evident, that the religious Consti- 
tution of this Colony is not founded upon the 
Scriptures of truth, but upon men's inventions." 
In the year 1755, the same in which he estab- 
lished the coUege church. President Clap issued 
his " History and Vindication of the doctrines 
received and established in the Churches of New 
England," " to which Thomas Darling's " Some 
Remarks on President Clap's History " was a 
scathing rejoinder. Darling asserted that for the 
President to uphold the Saybrook System of Con- 
sociated Churches was to set up the standards 
of men, a thing the forefathers never did ; ^^^ that 
the picture of the Separatists' " New Scheme," 
which the President drew, was a scandalous spir- 
itual libel ; ^^^ and then, falling into the per- 
sonal attacks permitted in those days. Darling 
adds that President Clap was an overzealous 

" The " History " is brief, and the " Vindication " is largely 
of President Clap's own reasons for establishing' the college 
church. See F. B. Dexter, " President Clap and his Writings," 
in New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers, vol. v, pp. 256-257. 



290 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sycophant of tlie General Assembly, a servant of 
politics rather than of religion, and that it would 
be better for him to trust to the real virtues of 
the Consociated Church to uphold it than to 
strive for legal props and legislative favors for 
his " ministry-factory," ^^^ the college. To raise 
the cry of heresy. Darling declared, was the 
President's political powder, and " The Church, 
the Church is in danger ! " his rallying cry. He 
concluded his arraignment with : — 

But would a man be tried, judged and excommuni- 
cated by such a standard as this ? No ! Not so long 
as they had one atom of common sense left. These 
things will never go down in a free State, where 
people are bred in, and breathe the free air, and are 
formed upon principles of liberty ; they might answer 
in a popish country, or in Turkey, where the common 
people are sunk and degraded almost to the state of 
brutes. . . . But in a free state they wiU be eternally 
ridiculed and abhorred. . . . 'Tis too late in the Day 
for these things, these gentlemen should have lived 
twelve or thirteen hundred years ago. 

Among the champions of religious liberty was 
the Seventh-day Baptist, John BoUes. He wrote 
" To worship God in Spirit and in Truth, is to 
worship him in true Liberty of Conscience," and 
also " Concerning the Christian Sabbath, which 
that Sabbath commanded to Israel, after they 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 291 

came out of Egypt, was a Sign of. Also Some 
Remarks upon a Book written by Ebenezer 
Frothingham." These works were published in 
1757, and, Ave years later, called out in defense 
of the Establishment Robert Ross's "Plain 
Address to the Quakers, Moravians, Separates, 
Separatist-Baptists, Rogerines, and other Enthu- 
siasts on immediate impulses, and Revelation, 
&c," wherein the author considers all those 
whom he addresses as on a level with Frothing- 
ham, whom he names and scores for " tram- 
pling on all Churches and their Determinasions, 
but your own, with the greatest disdain." ^^^ 

In the same year, 1762, the Separatist Israel 
Holly published a defense of his opinions, quot- 
ing freely from Dr. Watts and from his own 
earlier work, " A Seasonable Plea for Liberty 
of Conscience, and the Right of private Judg- 
ment in matters of Religion, without any con- 
trol from Human Authority." This " A Word in 
Zion's Behalf " " boldly ranges itself with Froth- 

" " Let no man, orders of man, Civil or Ecclesiastical Ru- 
lers, majority, or any whoever pretend they have a right to 
enjoyn upon me what I shall believe and practice in matters 
of Religion, and I bound to subject to their Injunctions, unless 
they can convince me, that in case there should happen to be 
a mistake, that they will sufEer the consequences, and not I ; 
that they will bear the wrath of God, and suflPer Damnation, 
in my room and stead. But if they can't do this, don't let 



292 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ingham and Bolles, arguing against, and em- 
phatically opposing, the state control of religion. 
HoUy also engaged in a printed controversy, 
publishing in connection with it " The Power of 
the Congregational Church to ordain its officers 
and govern itself." 

In 1767, while the Separatists stiU outnum- 
bered the Baptists in Connecticut, Ebenezer 
Frothingham put forth another powerful and 
closely argued tract, " A Key to unlock the 
Door, that leads in, to take a fair view of the 
Religious Constitution Established by Law in 
the Colony of Connecticut,"'^ etc. In his preface 
he states : — 

The main Thing I have in View thro' the whole 
of this Book is free Liberty of Conscience . . . the 

them pretend to a right to determine for me what religion I 
shall have. For if I must stand or fall for myself, then, pray 
let me judge, and act and choose (in Matters of Religion) for 
myself now. Yea, when I view these things in the Light of 
the Day of Judgment approaching, I am ready to cry out 
Hands off ! Hands off ! Let none pretend a right to my sub- 
jection in matters of Religion, but my Judge only ; or, if any 
do require it, God strengthen me to refuse to grant it." A 
Word in Zion's Behalf. Quoted by E. H. Gillett in Hist. 
Magazine., 2d series, vol. iv, p. 16. 

« A Key to unlock the Door, that leads in, to take a fair view 
of the Religious Constitution Established by Law in the Colony of 
Connecticut; With a Short Observation upon the Explanation 
of the Say-Brook-Plan ; and Mr. Hobarfs Attempt to establish 
the same Plan, by Ebenezer Frothingham. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 293 

Right of thinking and choosing and acting for one's 
self in matters of Religion, which respects God and 
Conscience . . . for my Readers may see Liberty of 
Conscience, was the main and leading Point in View 
in planting this Land and Colony. 

Frothingham defines the Religious Constitu- 
tion as " certain Laws in the Colony Law Book, 
called ecclesiastical, with the Confession of 
Faith, agreed upon by the Elders and Messen- 
gers of the Churches, met at Saybrook, espe- 
cially the Articles of Administration of Church 
Discipline." This Constitution Plan " gives the 
General Assembly (which is, and always should 
so remain, a civil body to transact in civil and 
moral things) power to constitute or make a 
spiritual or ecclesiastical body." ^^ 

Such power, Frothingham maintains, is con- 
trary to reason. Citing from the Colony Law 
Book the statute, " Concerning who shall vote 
in town or Society meeting " Frothingham com- 
ments thus : — 

This supposes no person to have a right to form 
themselves into a religious society without their [the 
Assembly's] leave. No, — not King George the Third 
himself would have liberty to worship God according 
to his conscience. [Yet] any Atheist, Deist, Arian, 
Socinian, a Prophane Drunkard, a Sorcerer, a Thief, 
if they have such a freehold (as the law demands), 



294 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

can vote to keep out a minister. [Such a] plan chal- 
lenges the sole right of making religious societies and 
the government of conscience. Yea, I think it as- 
sumes the prerogative that belongs to the Son of God 
alone. ^^^ 

The fines for the neglect of the established wor- 
ship and for assembling for worship approved by- 
conscience [leave] no gap for one breath of gospel 
liberty. For if we exercise our gifts and graces in 
the lawful assemblies, we are had up, and carried 
to prison, for making disturbance on the Sabbath. 
I myself have been confined in Hartford prison near 
five months, for nothing but exhorting and warning 
the people, after the public worship was done and the 
assembly dismissed. And while I was there confined, 
three more persons were sent to prison ; one for 
exhorting, and two for worshipping God in a private 
house in a separate meeting. And quick after I was 
released, by the laws being answered by natural re- 
lations unbeknown to me, then two brethren more 
was committed for exhorting and preaching, and sev- 
eral afterward, for attending the same duties and I 
myself was twice more sent to prison for the minis- 
ters rates.^^* 

I have no Man or Men's persons as such, in View 
in my Writings, But would as much as is proper, 
separate Ministers, Civil Rulers, and Churches, from 
the Constitution, and consider this Religious Consti- 
tution as it is compiled or written, as though it was 
not established in this Colony ; but presented here 
from some remote part of Christendom, for Examina- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 295 

tion, to see if it was according to the Word of God, 
and the sacred Right of Conscience.^^^ 

In scathing terms, Frothingham attacks the 
" Anti-Christian " character of the Establish- 
ment and its fear that, by granting liberty of 
conscience, an open door for church separation 
would result, and thereby its speedy downfall, 
because of the multipKcation of churches and the 
loss of taxes enforced for its support. Experi- 
ence had taught the authorities that, even when 
all the people favored one form of religion, com- 
pulsory support had to be resorted to as a spur 
to individual contributions. Moreover, the best 
governments of which they knew had recourse to 
a similar system in order to maintain purity of 
religion and the moral weKare of the state. The 
authorities could not see, as did the champion 
of religious liberty, the opportunities of oppres- 
sion that such a system afforded ; nor could they 
feel with him the harshness of its taxation, nor 
the injustice of distraining dissenters' goods, — 
or, as he phrased it, " their lack of faith in God 
and in God's people to uphold religion." They 
certainly would not acknowledge Frothingham 's 
charge that they seriously feared the loss of 
political power through the granting of soul lib- 
erty, and as a consequence the probable disinte- 
gration of the Establishment. 



296 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Frothingliam argues that to suffer the exist- 
ence of different sects would really strengthen 
the authority of the colony; since, — 

when persons know that the Most High is alone the 
absolute Lord of Conscience ; that no mortal breath- 
ing has any right to hinder them from thinking and 
acting for themselves, in religious affairs . . . the law 
of nature, reason and grace will lay subjects under 
strong obligations to their rulers, when equal justice 
is ministered to them of different principles, in the 
practice of religion.^*^ 

Frothingham confutes the declaration that there 
was liberty of conscience in the colony, " for the 
separates have gone to the General Assembly 
with their prayers, from year to year, asking 
nothing but their just rights, full and free liberty 
of conscience, and have been, and still are, denied 
their request." 

Furthermore, the colony law supported crim- 
inals in prison and gave the poor man's oath to 
debtors, but nothing to the man who was in 
prison for conscience's sake. Such a one was 
dependent upon the charity of his friends for 
the very necessities of life. Such laws and the 
ecclesiastical constitution which they support 
become — 

a forfeiture of the charter grant because they exer- 
cise that oppression and persecution contrary to its 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 297 

first intent, and are the direct cause of contention and 
disunion, which is repugnant to the principal design 
of constituting the colony ; viz. that it " May be so 
religiously, peaceably and civilly governed as may win 
and invite the natives to the Christian faith." ^^"^ 

This " Key to unlock the Door " was probably 
the strongest work put forth from the dissenter's 
standpoint, and within three years it was fol- 
lowed by a legislative act granting a measure of 
toleration. But there were other important books 
of similar character. Two among these were 
Eobert Bragge's "Church Discipline,"" re- 
printed in 1768, and Joseph Brown's (Baptist) 
" Letter to the Infant Baptizers of North Parish 
in New London." Brown closes his book with a 
mild and reasonable appeal to every one to try 

" Robert Bragge, Church Discipline, London, 1738. The au- 
thor takes for his text 1 Peter ii, 45, and under ten heads con- 
siders the Congregational church as the true Scriptural church, 
its rights, privileges, etc. Under topic four, " The Charter of 
this House," he says : " The charter of this house exempts all 
its inhabitants from obeying the whole ceremonial law : . . . 
from the doctrines of men in matters of faith, . . . from man's 
commands in the worship of God. Man can no more prescribe 
how God shall be worshipped, under the new testament than 
he could under the old. . . . He alone who is in the bosom of 
the Father hath declared this. To worship God according to 
the will and pleasure of men is, in a sense to attempt to de- 
throne him : for it is not only to place man's will on a level 
with God's, but above it." — Church Discipline, p. 39. 



298 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to put himself in the place of the oppressed dis- 
senter." In Brown's argument, as in that of the 
majority of the dissenters, the plea is for tolera- 
tion in the choice of the form of religion to be sup- 
ported, and not for liberty to support or neglect 
religion itself. Those who believed in the volun- 
tary support of religion were not seeking exemp- 
tion as individuals, but as organized societies 
or churches, whose highest privilege it was to 

" *' Now suffer me to say something respecting the unrea- 
sonableness of compelling the people of our persuasion to hear 
or support the minister of another. Can a person who has been 
redeemed, be so ungrateful as to hire a minister to preach up a 
doctrine which in his heart he believes to be directly contrary to 
the institutions of his redeemer ? How if one of you should hap- 
pen to be in the company with a number of Roman Catholicks, 
who should tell you that if you would not hire a minister to 
preach transubstantiation and the worshipping of images to your 
children and to an unlearned people, they would cut off your 
head ; would you do it ? Can you any better submit to hire a 
minister to preach up a doctrine which you in your heart be- 
lieve contrary to the institution of Christ ? I do not doubt but 
that many of you, and I do not know but that all of you know 
what it is to experience redeeming love ; and if so, now can you 
take a person of another persuasion, and put him in gaol for a 
trifling sum, destroy his estate and ruin his family (as you sig- 
nify the law will bear you out) and when he is careful to sup- 
port the religion which he in his conscience looks upon to 
be right, who honestly tells you it is wronging his conscience 
to pay your minister, and that he may not do so though he 
suffer ? ... Is it not shame ? Are we sharers in redemption, 
and do we grudge to support religion ? No : let us seek for the 
truth of the gospel. If we can't think alike, let us not be cruel 
one to another." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 299 

support Christ's teachings. Considered from this 
point of view, they were only seeking those privi- 
leges which had been granted the Episcopalians, 
the Quakers, and Baptists in 1727-29, Looked 
at from the point of view of the government, 
however, these Separatists varied so slightly from 
the legalized polity and worship, and yet withal 
so dangerously, that they did not deserve to be 
classed as " sober dissenters." To recognize 
them as such would be to set the seal of approval 
upon all who chose to question the authority, or 
the righteousness, of the Saybrook system. With 
the fear of such an undermining of authority, 
and realizing the increasing tendency of churches 
throughout the colony to renounce the Saybrook 
Platform, the very conservative people felt that 
to grant toleration to the Separatists might prove 
disastrous both to Church and civil order. 

While the Baptists and the Separatists were 
waging the battle for toleration and for religious 
liberty with the great weapon of their time, — 
the pamphlet, — the Consociated Churches were 
also making valiant use of it, not only in de- 
fense of the Establishment, but in controversial 
warfare among themselves, for in the New Eng- 
land of the second half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, two schools of religious thought were slowly 
developing. They gained converts more rapidly 



300 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

as the means of communication, of publication, 
and of exchange of opinion increased. The 
improvement of roads, the introduction of car- 
riages and coaches, the establishment of print- 
ing-presses, and the founding of newspapers, 
were important agents in developing and mould- 
ing public opinion. Of these, the printing-press 
was foremost, for with its pamphlet and its 
newspaper it gained a hearing not only in the 
cities, but in the isolated farmhouses of New Eng- 
land, carrying on its weekly visit the gist of the 
secular and religious news. 

The newspaper made its first appearance in 
Connecticut in 1755, when the " Connecticut 
Gazette " ^ issued from the recently established 
New Haven press. The newspaper arrived later 
in the distant colony of Connecticut than in 
those on the seaboard that were in closer touch 
with European thought by reason of their more 
direct and frequent sailing vessels. Among 

" Connecticut Gazette (New Haven) April 1755-Apr. 14, 
1764 ; suspended ; revived July 5, 1765-Feb. 19, 1768. The 
New London Gazette, founded in 1763, was after 1768 known 
as the Connecticut Gazette, except from Dec. 10, 1773, to 
May 11, 1787, when it was called The Connecticut Gazette and 
Universal Intelligencer. 

Maryland published her first newspaper in 1727, Rhode 
Island and South Carolina in 1732, Virginia in 1736, North 
Carolina in 1755, New Hampshire in 1756, while Georgia fell 
into line in 1763. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 301 

American newspapers, the year 1704 saw the 
birth of the " Boston News Letter " ; the year 
1719, of the "Boston Gazette ".and of the 
" American Weekly Mercury " of Philadelphia. 
Boston added a third paper, the " New England 
Courant," in 1721, while New York issued its 
first sheet in 1725. Benjamin Franklin founded 
the " Pennsylvania Gazette " in 1729, and, in 
1741, began the publication of the " General 
Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the 
British Plantations in America." In 1743, Bos- 
ton sent out the " American Magazine and 
Historical Chronicle," containing, along with 
European news, not only lists of new books and 
excerpts therefrom, but full reprints of the best 
essays from the English magazines. New York, 
in 1752, issued the "Independent Reflector," a 
magazine of similar character. Thus, through 
papers and magazines, as well as through a lim- 
ited importation of books, and through personal 
correspondence, the life of Europe, and preemi- 
nently of England, was brought home to the 
colonists. 

In the religious non-prelatical world of Eng- 
land, the Presbyterian churches were undergoing 
a transformation, and were, by 1750, prevailingly 
Arian. The English Congregationalists resisted 
Arianism, but they, also, felt its influence, as 



302 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

well as that of Arminianism, and they began to 
attach less importance to creeds, and to develop 
a broader tolerance of many shades of religious 
belief. New England sympathized more with the 
Congregational movement, but, as interest in 
both was awakened, English thought came to 
have great influence in the religious development 
of New England during the next half -century. 
Broadly speaking of these progressive changes, 
Connecticut, and Connecticut-trained men in 
western Massachusetts, developed the so-called 
New Divinity, while Massachusetts clergy, espe- 
cially those of her eastern section, favored that 
liberal theology which, after the Kevolutionary 
period, gave rise to the Unitarian conflict. 

The older religious controversies had concerned 
themselves with church polity, or, popularly speak- 
ing, with what men thought concerning their re- 
lation to God through his church, in distinction 
from doctrine, or what men felt should be their 
attitude towards God and their fellow-men. Push- 
ing aside polity and doctrine, the twentieth cen- 
tury emphasizes action, or man's reflection of the 
life of Christ. Doctrine came to the front with 
Jonathan Edwards. In his opposition to the Ar- 
minian teaching of the value of a sincere obedience 
to God's laws and " the efficacy of means of 
grace," Jonathan Edwards asserted the Calvin- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 303 

istic idea of tlie sovereignty of God, and main- 
tained that justification was by faith alone; but 
his idea of justification held within it the duty 
of personal responsibility in loving and obeying 
God. Edwards, though defining love as general 
benevolence, a delight in God's holiness, and the 
essence of aU true virtue, did introduce, as fac- 
tors in personal religion, the will and the emo- 
tions. These characteristics of true, personal 
religion, as his mind, influenced by the Great 
Awakening, conceived and elaborated them, he 
set forth in his " Religious Affections," pub- 
lished in 1746. In his " Qualifications for Full 
Communion," 1749, he again dwelt upon the 
same theme ; but his main purpose was to uproot 
the Half- Way Covenant practice and the Stod- 
dardean view of the Lord's supper. He attempted 
to do this by exposing the inefficiency of 
" means," and at English Arminianism in par- 
ticular Edwards leveled his "Freedom of the 
Will," « published in 1754. His friend and dis- 
ciple, Joseph Bellamy, put forth in 1750 " True 
Religion Delineated," wherein he advances from 
Edwards's limited atonement theory to that of 
a general one.* In 1758, Bellamy, in brilliant 

" Edwards's Nature of True Virtue, written about 1755, was 
not published until 1765. 

^ This book, otherwise essentially Edwardean, was second 



304 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

dialogue, replied to " A Winter's Evening Con- 
versation Upon the Doctrine of Original Sin in 
which the Notion of our having sinned in Adam 
and being on that A ccount only liable to eternal 
Damnation, is proved to be unscriptural," a book 
by Rev. Samuel Webster of Salisbury, Massa- 
chusetts, and of which a reprint had appeared 
from the New Haven Press in 1757, the year 
of its publication. Bellamy took sides with the 
Rev. Peter Clark of Danvers, Massachusetts, 
who replied in " A Summer Morning's Conver- 
sation." Both men summoned as their authority 
a work of Edwards, " Original Sin Defended," 
which was about to appear from the press, and 
to which Edwards's followers were looking for- 
ward as the last work of their master, he having 
died while its pages were still in press. Edwards 
had destined the book to be a refutation of Eng- 
lish Arianism of the Taylor school, of which 
Webster was a follower. This same year, 1758, 
Bellamy discoursed upon " The Wisdom of God 
in the Permission of Sin," and gave a series of 
sermons on " The Divinity of Jesus Christ," a 
defense of the Trinity, which Jonathan Mayhew 

only to Edwards's Beligious Affections in popularity and in its 
success in spreading the influence of this school of theology, 
and it did much, in Connecticut, to break down the opposition 
to the New Divinity. Edwards himself approved its manu- 
script, and in his writings recommended it highly. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 305 

of Boston had attacked. Bellamy may have felt 
that this defense was due from a Connecticut 
man because the colony, strenuously orthodox, 
had in the revision of the laws in 1750 added 
the requirement of a belief in the Trinity, and 
caused the denial thereof to be ranked as felony. 
Denial of the Trinity, or of the divine inspira- 
tion of the Scriptures, was punishable, for the 
first offense, by ineligibility to office, whether 
ecclesiastical, civil, or military, and, upon a sec- 
ond conviction, by disability to sue, to act as 
guardian or as administrator.^*^ Though there 
was never a conviction under the statute, the 
presence of such a law in the colony code indi- 
cates the religious temper of her people at a time 
when radical changes were creeping into man's 
conception of religion. 

Joseph Bellamy's influence, great as it was as 
writer and preacher, was even greater as a teacher. 
His home in Bethlehem from 1738 to 1790 was 
virtually a divinity school, and it is estimated 
that at least sixty students, trained in his system 
of theology and in his antagonism to the Half- 
Way Covenant," spread through New England 

" In 1769-70, Bellamy wrote a series of tracts and dia- 
logues ag-ainst this practice. They were very effective in 
causing its abandonment by those conservative churches that 
had so long clung to its use. 



306 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

an influence counter to that of the Mayhews, 
Briant," Webster, and other disciples of the 
Liberal Theology. Upon Bellamy, as a leader, 
fell Edwards's mantle. 

While Bellamy was the great exponent of 
Jonathan Edwards's teachings in Connecticut, 
another friend and famous pupil of the great 
divine's, Samuel Hopkins, taught at Great 
Barrington, Massachusetts, 1743-69, and in 
Newport, Ehode Island, 1770-1803, urging an 
extension of his master's principles — especially 
of that of " benevolence." Hopkins, however, 
attributed a certain value to " means of grace," 
while teaching that sin and virtue consist in 

« Experience Mayhew in his Grace Defended, of 1744. 

Lemuel Briant's The Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciat- 
ing Moral Virtue, 1749. This was replied to in Massachusetts, 
by Rev. John Porter of North Bridgewater in The Absurdity 
and Blasphemy of Substituting the Personal Righteousness of 
Men, etc. ; also by a sermon of Rev, Thomas Foxcroft, Dr. 
Charles Chauncy's colleague ; and by Rev. Samuel Niles's 
Vindication 'of Divers Important Gospel Doctrines. 

Jonathan Mayhew, son of Experience, wrote his Sermons 
(pronouncedly Arian) in 1755, and in 1761 two sermons, Striv- 
ing to Enter at the Strait Gate. 

Other ministers were affected by these unorthodox views, 
notably Ebenezer Gay, Daniel Shute, and John Rogers. This 
religious development was cut short by the early death of 
the leaders and by the Revolutionary contest. Briant died in 
1754, Jonathan Mayhew in 1766, and his father in 1758. — See 
W. Walker, Hist, of the Congregational Churches in the United 
States, chap. viii. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 307 

exercise of the will, or in definite acts." Conse- 
quently, he included in his theology a denial of 
man's responsibility for Adam's sin, which Ed- 
wards had maintained. Hopkins advocated also 
a willing and disinterested submission to God's 
wiU, the Hopkinsian " to be saved or damned," 
since God, in his wisdom, will do that which is 
best for his universe. These characteristic doc- 
trines, both of Bellamy and Hopkins, were 
modified by the younger generation of students, 
notably by Stephen West, John Smalley, Jona- 
than Edwards, Jr., and — greatest of all — 
Nathaniel Emmons, who, together with the first 
Timothy Dwight, were to introduce two sub- 
schools of the New Divinity.^ Emmons, folio w- 

« Hopkins replied in 1165 to Jonathan Mayhew's sermons 
of 1761. Mayhew died before he could answer, but Moses 
Hemenway of Wells, Maine, and also Jedediah Mills of Hunt- 
ington, Conn, (a New Light sympathizer), answered Hopkins's 
extreme views in 1767 in An Inquiry concerning the State of the 
Unregenerate under the Gospel. This involved Hopkins in fur- 
ther argumentation in 1769, and drew into the discussion Wil- 
liam Hart (Old Light) of Saybrook, and also Moses Mather 
of Darien, Conn, (also Old Light). This attack upon Hop- 
kins resulted in 1773 in his greatest work. An Inquiry into the 
Nature of True Holiness. The whole question at stake between 
the Old Calvinists and the followers of the New Divinity was 
how to class men, morally upright, who made no pretensions 
to religious experience. 

^ West, in his Essay on Moral Agency, defended Edwards's 
Freedom of the Will against the Rev. James Dana of New 
Haven in 1772, but his Scripture Doctrine of Atonement, pub- 



308 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ing Hopkins, developed extreme views of sin, 
even in little children ; lield the theories of re- 
probation and election ; and was most intensely 
Calvinistic. Dwight developed a more concil- 
iatory and benign system of theology, but his 
influence, as founder of a school of religious 
thought, belongs to the post-Revolutionary era. 
Emmons held one long pastorate at Franklin, 
Massachusetts, 1773-1827," where, as a trainer 
of youth for the ministry, his influence was 
greatest, and his powers at their best. Nearly a 
hundred ministers passed to their pulpits from 
his tutelage. 

Such were the teachings that fashioned a gen- 
eration of preachers, of ministers, wielding a tre- 
mendous influence over the men and measures of 
pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary days. The 
clergy were then the close friends of their parish- 
ioners ; their counselors in all matters, spiritual 
or worldly ; and frequently their arbitrators in 

lished in 1785, was his best-known work. In his doctrinal 
views, he was greatly influenced by Hopkins. Both West and 
Smalley trained students for the ministry. The latter was the 
teacher of Nathaniel Emmons. Smalley was settled in what 
is now New Britain, Conn., from 1757-1820. 

« Emmons died there, in 1840, at the age of ninety-five. 
Apart from his influence upon the development of doctrine, 
he did more than any other man to bring back the eariy inde- 
pendence of the churches and to create the Congregational 
polity of the present day. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 309 

disputed rights, for the legal class was still small, 
and its services costly. The pastor knew inti- 
mately every soul in his parish. He was the 
State's moral guardian. He was the intellectual 
leader and more, for, in the scarcity of books 
and newspapers, not alone in his Sunday ser- 
mon but in those on fast days and thanksgivings, 
and on all public and semi-public occasions, he 
talked to his people upon current events. The 
story is told of a clergyman who in his Sunday 
prayer recounted the life of his parish during 
the preceding week, making personal mention 
of its actors ; who then passed, stiU praying, 
from local history to the welfare of the nation, 
including a tribute to Washington and a de- 
scription of a battle ; and who did not end his 
hour-long prayer until he had anathematized 
the enemy, and circled the globe for recent ex- 
amples of divine wrath and benevolence. Such a 
clergyman is by no means a myth. Each pastor 
made his own contribution, inconspicuous or no- 
table as it might be, to the broadening of thought, 
and contributed his part to the development 
among his people of ideas of personal liberty, 
even as the colonial wars were developing confi- 
dence in the ability to defend that liberty should 
it be endangered. A voluntary theocracy may 
uphold a faith which teaches that only a very 



310 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

limited number are of tlie " elect," but, under 
the ordinary conditions of life, sucb a belief is 
discouraging, deadening, and as men threw off 
this idea of spiritual bondage, they advanced to 
a larger conception of personal responsibility, 
dignity, and freedom. Such enlargement of ideas 
necessitated a mutual tolerance of diverse opin- 
ions. It also tended to create revolt against in- 
fractions of civil liberty or violations of political 
justice. The colonists were not so badly taxed 
— as colonial policy went — when they made 
their stand for " no taxation without representa- 
tion," when they exhausted their resources in a 
long war because of acts of Parliament that, had 
they submitted to them, would have offered a 
precedent for still more repressive measures and 
for the overthrow of the Englishman's right to 
determine, through the representatives of the 
people, how the people's money should be spent. 
If the town-meeting, the sermon, the religious 
or political pamphlet, and the newspaper did 
each its part in developing a people, there was 
also another factor that, starting as part of a 
discussion of ecclesiastical polity, brought before 
all men important questions of civil, political, 
and personal liberty, and of constitutional rights. 
However unnecessary the severe anguish of Jona- 
than Mayhew's spirit, due to his exaggerated 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 311 

fear of the American episcopate, he did but 
express " the sincere thought of a multitude of 
his most rational contemporaries." ^^^ A review 
of events will show some reason for the antago- 
nism and horror that filled New England when 
the project of the episcopate was revived. After 
the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the Crown took 
no interest in the project of an American epis- 
copate until Thomas Sherlock became Bishop of 
London in 1748. The Connecticut clergy of the 
Church of England, together with others of 
New England and the Middle colonies, had, how- 
ever, never ceased their efforts to secure an 
American bishop ; and now, in Bishop Sherlock, 
their Metropolitan in London, they had one 
who firmly believed in the necessity of colonial 
bishops, who deliberately refused to exercise the 
traditional powers of his office, or to obtain a 
legal renewal of them (in so far as they applied 
to the colonies), because he had determined that 
by such a policy he would force the English 
government to appoint one — or preferably sev- 
eral — American bishops. He defined his scheme 
for the episcopate as one in which the Bishop 
was : (1) to have no coercive power over the 
laity, only regulative over the clergy ; (2) to 
have no share in the temporal government ; (3) 
to be of no expense to the colonists ; (4) and 



312 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to have no authority, except to ordain the clergy, 
in any of the colonies where the government was 
in the hands of dissenters from the Church of 
England. This plan was essentially the same as 
that advocated later by Bishops Seeker and But- 
ler, and by succeeding bishops to the time of the 
Revolution. Bishop Sherlock obtained the King's 
permission to submit his plan to the English 
ministers of state. So great was the dread in- 
spired in America by the rumors of a revival of 
active measures for a colonial episcopate, that a 
deputation, sent to England in 1749, appointed 
a committee of two to wait upon those nearest 
to the King and to advise them that the appoint- 
ment would be " highly Prejudicial to the Inter- 
ests of Several of the Colonies." ^^^ Xhis com- 
mittee redoubled its energies in 1750, and it was 
due to its watchfulness as well as to the clearer 
foresight of the King's ministers that Bishop 
Sherlock's plan was frustrated. The chief ad- 
visers of the government objected to it on the 
ground that it would be repugnant to the dis- 
senting colonies, to the dissenters of all sorts in 
England, and would also rouse in the home-land 
party-differences that had slumbered since the 
overthrow of the Pretender in 1745. 

Despite the English opposition to Bishop 
Sherlock's scheme, its discussion in England and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 313 

the journey of the bishop's agent through the 
several American colonies to sound their senti- 
ment had created so much apprehension that the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel en- 
joined its missionaries, in 1753, " that they take 
special care to give no offence to the civil gov- 
ernment by intermeddling with affairs not relat- 
ing to their calling or function." Even Bishop 
Seeker of Oxford, a strong adherent of Bishop 
Sherlock, saw fit, in 1754, to suppress Dr. John- 
son of Stratford, Connecticut, bidding his en- 
thusiasm wait until a more propitious season, 
and advising him, and the rest of his clergy, to 
conciliate the dissenters. Bishop Sherlock, him- 
self, in 1752, withdrew sujBficiently from his first 
position to assume the ecclesiastical oversight of 
the colonies, although he would not take out a 
commission to renew that which had expired by 
the death of Bishop Gibson. Meanwhile, Sher- 
lock's demonstration that the Bishop of London 
had little authority in law, or in fact, over the 
American colonies created two parties. One** 
held that the colonies were a part of the Eng- 
lish nation and consequently were subject to the 

" To fortify their position, this party cited various acts of 
Parliament and the Act of Union, 1707, wherein Scotland is 
distinctly released from subjection to the Church of Eng'land, 
— an exemption, they maintained, that had never formally 
been extended to the colonies. 



314 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

civil and religious laws existing in tlie home 
country, and that the authority of the Church 
of England extending to the colonies had been 
reinforced by the Gibson patent of 1727-28. 
The other party maintained that the colonists 
were not members of the Church of England, 
nor subject to its rules. They quoted the Lord 
Chief Justice, who declared to Governor Dum- 
mer, in 1725, that '' there was no regular estab- 
lishment of any national or provincial church in 
these plantations " (of New England), and that 
Bishop Gilman, in his letter of May 24, 1735, 
to Dr. Colman had written, " My opinion has 
always been that the religious state of New Eng- 
land is founded on an equal liberty to all Pro- 
testants, none of which can claim the name of a 
national establishment, or of any kind of supe- 
riority over the rest." This party further main- 
tained that no acts of Parliament, passed after 
the founding of the colonies, were binding upon 
them, unless such acts were specially extended 
to the colonies. Here again was the old conten- 
tion that had appeared in the earlier controversy 
over the Connecticut Intestacy Act. 

An American controversy, parallel in time 
with the attempt to establish the episcopate, 
roused the always latent New England hostil- 
ity to the Episcopal church as one contrary to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 315 

gospel teaching. This controversy of 1747-51 " 
broke out over the validity of Presbyterian or- 
dination versus Episcopal. The battle surged 
about the contingent questions of (1) whether 
the Church of England extended to the colonies ; 
(2) whether it was prudent for the long estab- 
lished New England churches to go over to the 
English communion ; and (3) whether it would 
be lawful. In debatiag the last two, incidental 
matters of expense, of unwise ecclesiastical de- 
pendence, and of the consequent decay of prac- 
tical godliness in the land, were discussed by the 
Rev. Noah Hobart of Stratford, Conn., who re- 
presented the Consociated churches, while Epis- 
copacy was defended by Rev. James Wetmore of 
Rye, N. Y., Dr. Johnson of Stratford, Conn., 
Rev. John Beach of Reading, Conn., and by the 
Rev. Henry Caner of Boston. 

This discussion at once suggested to a few 
far-sighted men that the bishops recently pro- 
posed, and which at the end of the Seven Years' 
War, in 1763, were again earnestly advocated by 
Bishop Seeker (who had become Archbishop of 
Canterbury) should not acquire any powers in 
addition to those suggested by Bishop Sherlock. 

" On January 30, 1750, Jonathan Mayhew preached a force- 
ful sermon upon the danger of being " unmercifully priest- 
ridden." 



316 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

The growing fear of such increased authority 
flamed out again in the Mayhew controversy of 
1763-65, when all the inherited Puritan dislike 
to the Church of England as a religious body, 
and all the terror of such a hierarchy, as a part 
of the English state, hurled itself into argument, 
and threw to the front the discussion of the 
American episcopate as a measure of Enghsh 
policy, — an attempt to transplant the Church as 
an arm of the State ; an attempt to " episcopize," 
to proselyte the colonies, and eventually to over- 
turn the New England ecclesiastical and civil gov- 
ernments." " It was known," wrote John Adams 
fifty years later, " that neither the king nor min- 
istry nor archbishop could appoint bishops in 

o Rev. East Apthorpe, S. P. G. missionary at Cambridge, 
Mass., had replied to a newspaper criticism upon the policy of 
the Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England, in his 
Considerations on the Institutions and Conduct of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Jonathan May- 
hew published in answer his Observations on the Character and 
Conduct of the Society, censuring the Society not only for in- 
truding itself into New England, but for being the champion 
of the proposed episcopate, which he denounced. This was in 
1763. For two years the controversy raged. There were four 
replies to Mayhew. Two were unimportant, a third presum- 
ably from Rev. Henry Caner, and the fourth. Answer to the 
Observations, an aYionymous English production, really by 
Archbishop Seeker. Mayhew wrote a Defense, and Apthorpe 
summed up the whole controversy in his Review. — A. L. Cross, 
Anglican Episcopate, p. 145 et seq. ; footnote 1, p. 147. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 317 

America without Act of Parliament, and if Par- 
liament could tax us, it could establish the 
Church of England with all its creeds, articles, 
ceremonies, and prohibit all other churches as 
conventicles and schism-shops." ^ Therefore, 
when England declared her right to tax the col- 
onies, and followed it by Sugar Act and Stamp 
Act, the political situation threw a lurid light 
about the Chandler-Chauncy controversy * of 
1767-71 as it rehearsed the pros and cons of 
the proposed episcopate. The New England 
colonies were greatly excited, and others shared 
the unrest, for, even where the Church of Eng- 
land was strongest, the laity as a body preferred 
the greater freedom accorded them under com- 
missaries as sub-officers of the Bishop of London. 
The indifference of the American laity as a 
whole to the project of the episcopate ; the im- 
potence of the English bishop to attain it, 
thwarted as he was by the threefold opposition 
of the ministry, the colonial agents, and the 

<* John Adams's Works, x, 288. 

^ Dr. Charles Chauncy attacked the S. P. G. as endeavor- 
ing to increase their power, not to proselyti/e among the 
Indians, but to episcopize the colonists. Dr. Chandler, of Eliza- 
hethtown, N. J., replied in An Appeal to the Public. Chauncy 
retorted with The Appeal Answered, and Chandler with The 
Appeal Defended. The newspapers of 1768-69 took up the 
controversy. 



318 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

great body of English dissenters, did not lessen 
the prevailing suspicion and fear among the col- 
onists, especially among those of New England. 
They felt no confidence in the profession " that 
authority purely ecclesiastical would alone be 
accorded to the bishop, or that American church- 
men themselves would long be satisfied with a 
bishopric so shorn of power. And already, on 
November 1, 1766, the Episcopalians of New 
York, New Jersey, and Connecticut had met to- 
gether in their first annual convention at Eliza- 
bethtown.^ The avowed object of their conference 
was the defense of the liberties of the Church of 
England, and " to diffuse union and harmony, 
and to keep up a correspondence throughout the 
united body and with their friends abroad." ^^^ 

It was a time of drawing together, whether of 
the colonies as political bodies, or of their people 
as groups of individuals affiliating with simi- 
lar groups beyond the local boundaries. Upon 
November 5, 1766, also at Elizabethtown, the 

°' In 1767, Dr. Johnson in a letter to Governor Trumbull as- 
sured him that "It is not intended, at present, to send any 
Bishops into the American Colonies, . . . and should it be 
done at all, you may be assured that it wlQ be done in such 
manner as in no degree to prejudice, nor if possible even give 
the least offense to any denomination of Protestants." — ^E. E. 
Beardsley, flz'sL of the Epis. Church in Conn., i, 265. 

b There were nine clergymen from Connecticut, and twenty- 
five from New York and vicinity. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 319 

Consociated Churches of Connecticut had united 
with the Presbyterian Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia in their first annual convention, 
which was composed of Presbyterian delegates to 
the Synod and of representatives from the Asso- 
ciations in Connecticut. While the general object 
was the promotion of Christian friendship be- 
tween the two religious bodies, the spread of 
the gospel, and the preservation of the liberties 
of their respective churches, the conventions of 
1769-75 determined to prosecute measures for 
preserving these same liberties, threatened " by 
the attempt made by the friends of Episcopacy 
in the Colonies and Great Britain, for the estab- 
lishment of Diocesan Bishops in America." ^^^ 
Accordingly this representative body at once en- 
tered into correspondence with the Committee of 
Dissenters in England. In recalling these move- 
ments towards combination, one remembers that, 
among the dissenters, the Quakers had long held 
to their system of Monthly, Quarterly, and An- 
nual Meetings, to their correspondence with the 
London Annual Meeting, and to the frequent 
interchange of traveling preachers. In the years 
1767-69, the scattered Baptists of New Eng- 
land had united in the Warren (Rhode Island) 
Association. It was a council for advice only, yet 
its approval lent multiple weight to the influence 



320 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

of any Baptist preacher. It urged the collection 
of all authentic reports of oppression or per- 
secution, and a firm, united resistance on the part 
of the weaker churches." The founding of Brown 
University, Rhode Island, as a Baptist College 
in 1764, gave the sect prestige by marking their 
approval of education and of a " learned min- 
istry." 

To return to the subject of the episcopate, 
the Chandler controversy had been precipitated 
by Dr. Johnson of Connecticut, who, at the 
Elizabeth convention, urged that the opposition 
to the American bishops was largely caused by 
ignorance concerning their proposed powers and 
office, and that if some one would put the scheme 
more fully before the people, they might be won 
over. The task was assigned to Thomas Brad- 
bury Chandler, who published his " An Appeal 
to the Public," 1767. Dr. Charles Chauncy of 
Boston replied to Chandler, giving the New Eng- 
land view of bishops in " The Appeal Answered." 
Chandler, as has been said, retorted with his 
" The Appeal Defended," and the newspapers 
took up the controversy. The discussion turned 

" The Association had sent petitions in behalf of the Bap- 
tists to the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
Both were refused. For its Circular Letter of 1776, see 
Hovey's hife of Backus, p. 289 ; also p. 155. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 321 

immediately and almost entirely from the eccle- 
siastical aspect, witli its dangers to New England 
churcli-life, to the political and constitutional 
phases of this proposed extension of the Church 
of England. The New York and Philadelphia 
press agitated the subject in 1768-69, while all 
New England echoed Mayhew's earlier denun- 
ciations of the evils to be anticipated. In the 
pulpit, by the study fire, and at the tavern- 
bar, leaders, scholars, people discussed the pos- 
sible loss of civil and personal liberty. Let the 
bishops once be seated, and would they not intro- 
duce ecclesiastical courts, demand uniformity, 
and impose a general tax for their church which 
might be perverted to any use that the whim of 
the King and of his subservient bishops might 
propose? There is no question that this sub- 
ject of the episcopate, with its political and con- 
stitutional phases, and with the considerations of 
personal and civil liberty involved, did much to 
familiarize the people with those principles upon 
which they made their final break with England, 
and helped to prepare their minds for the sepa- 
ration from the mother country. 

In considering the various elements that con- 
tributed to the development of the national 
spirit, to the destruction of that provincialism 
so marked in the colonies before 1750, and to 



322 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the creation in each of breadth of thought and 
clearness of vision, trade and commerce had 
their part. Because of them, came increasing 
knowledge of the widely different habits of life 
in the thirteen colonies. It came also from the 
association of the people of the different sections 
when as soldiers of their King they were sum- 
moned to the various wars. Still another impe- 
tus was given to the national idea by the fashion 
of long, elaborate correspondence. Especially 
was this true after the Albany convention of 
1754, called to discuss Franklin's Plan of Union, 
had introduced men of like minds, abilities, and 
purpose, and also the needs of their respective 
sections, and had interested them in the common 
welfare of all. Moreover, Franklin was the 
highest representative of still another move- 
ment that roused the slumbering intelligence of 
men by opening their minds to impressions from 
the vast and unexplored world of natural science. 
He founded, in 1743, the University of Penn- 
sylvania and the American Philosophical Society. 
The recognition, in 1753, '^ of his work by Euro- 

" This year the Royal Society awarded him the Copley 
medal for his discovery that lightning- was a discharge of 
electricity. 

In 1761 the medal of the Royal Society was also awarded 
to the Rev. Jared Eliot of Killingworth, Conn., for making 
iron and steel from black ferruginous sand. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT ^23 

pean scholars was an honor In which every Amer- 
ican took pride as marking the entrance of the 
colonies into the world of scientific investigation. 
Such honorable recognition produced a wide- 
spread interest in the study of the physical world 
and its forces. Following this awakening and 
broadening of the intellectual life, there came, 
at the very dawn of the Revolution, the first out- 
cropping of genuine American literature in the 
satires and poems of Philip Freneau of New 
York, a graduate of Princeton, and in those of 
John Trumbull and Joel Barlow ^ of Yale. New 
Haven became a centre of literary life, and the 
cultivation of literature took its place beside that 
of the classics, broadening the preeminently 
ministerial groove of the Yale curriculum. 

In considering some of the individual acts lead- 
ing up to Connecticut's part in the Revolution, 
we find that the colony had disapproved Frank- 
lin's Plan of Union of 1754. She thought it 
lacking in efficiency and in dispatch in emergen- 

« John Trumbull, b. 1750, d. in Michigan, 1831 ; Joel Bar- 
low, b. 1754, d. in Poland, 1812 ; Gen. David Humphreys, b. 
1752, d. in New Haven, 1818. These Yale men, together with 
Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, were the leading- spirits in the club 
known as "The Hartford Wits." Dr. Dwight was a fellow 
collegian with them. Trumbull and Dwight did much to in- 
terest the students in literature. The latter was also tutor in 
rhetoric and professor of belles-lettres and oratory. 



324^ THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

cies, and possibly dangerous to the liberties of 
the colonies. Slie also believed it liable to plunge 
tlie colonies into heavy expense, when many of 
them were already floundering in debt. Yet Con- 
necticut had, with Massachusetts, willingly borne 
the brunt of expense and loss necessary to protect 
the colonies in the wars arising from French and 
English claims. She, accordingly, greatly rejoiced 
at the Peace of Ryswick, 1763, for it gave se- 
curity to her borders by the cession of Canada to 
England, brought safety to commerce and the 
fisheries, and promised a new era of prosperity. 
The attempt of England to recoup herself for 
the expenses of the war by a rigid enforcement 
of the Navigation Laws — an enforcement that 
paralyzed commerce, and turned the open evasion 
of honorable merchantmen into the treasonable 
acts of smugglers — grieved Connecticut ; the 
Sugar Act provoked her, and the proposed Stamp 
Act drove her to remonstrance. Her magis- 
trates issued the dignified and spirited address, 
" Reasons why the British Colonies in America 
should not be charged with Internal Taxes by 
Authority of Parliament." ^ It was firmly be- 
lieved in the colony that when the severity of 

« Conn. Col. Rec. xii, Appendix. This was drawn up by the 
Governor and three members of the General Assembly, May, 
1764. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 325 

the English acts should be demonstrated, they 
would at once be removed and some substitute, 
such as the proposed tax on slaves or on the fur 
trade, would be adopted. Jared Ingersoll, the 
future stamp-officer, carried the address to Eng- 
land. There it received praise as an able and 
temperate state-paper. Ingersoll is credited with 
having succeeded in slightly modifying the Stamp 
Act and in postponing somewhat the date for its 
going into effect. Having done what he could 
to modify the measure, and not appreciating the 
growth of opposition to it during his absence, he 
accepted the office of Stamp-Distributer, and re- 
turned to America, where he was straightway 
undeceived as to the desirability of his office, but 
made his way from Boston to Connecticut, hoping 
for better things. On reaching New Haven, he 
was remonstrated with for accepting his office and 
urged to give it up. But learning that Governor 
Fitch, after mature deliberation, had resolved to 
take the oath to support the Stamp Act, and had 
done so, though seven of his eleven Councilors, 
summoned for the ceremony, had refused to wit- 
ness the oath, Ingersoll decided to push on to 
Hartford. Starting alone and on horseback, he 
rode unmolested through the woods ; but as he 
journeyed through the villages, group after group 
of stern-looking men, bearing in their hands 



326 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sticks peeled bare of bark so as to resemble tbe 
staves carried by constables, silently joined him, 
and, later, soldiers and a troop of horse. Thus 
he was escorted into Wethersfield, where, vir- 
tually a prisoner, he was made to resign his 
commission. The cavalcade, ever increasing, pro- 
ceeded with him to Hartford," where he publicly 
proclaimed his resignation and signed a paper to 
that effect. Everywhere the towns burned him 
in effigy. Everywhere the spirit of indignation 
and of opposition spread. The " Norwich 
Packet " discussed the favored East Indian mo- 
nopolies and the Declaratory and Revenue Acts 
of Parliament. The " Connecticut Courant " 
(founded in Hartford in 1764), the " Connect- 
icut Gazette," the "Connecticut Journal and 
New Haven Post-Boj^," * and the "New London 
Gazette " encouraged the spirit of resistance^ 
A Norwich minister ^^^ preached from the text 
"Touch not mine anointed," referring to the 
people as the " anointed " and arguing that 
kings, through Acts of Parliament which take 
away, infringe, or violate civil rights, touch the 
"anointed" people in a way forbidden by God. 

^ With grim humor, he turned to one of his escort, saying- 
that he at last realized the description in Revelation of " Death 
riding- a white horse and hell following behind." 

^ The latter half of the title was omitted about 1775. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 327 

This Norwich minister was not alone among the 
clergy, for the sermons of the three sects, Bap- 
tist, Separatist, and Congregational, " connected 
with one indissoluble bond the principles of civil 
Government and the principles of Christianity." 
The laity of the Episcopal church were, as a body, 
patriots, and so, also, were many of their clergy ; 
but party spirit, roused by the discussion of the 
episcopate and of their relation to the King, as 
head of their church as well as head of the State, 
tended to Toryism. From their pulpits was more 
frequently heard the doctrine of passive obedi- 
ence. But in all the opposition to the Stamp Act, 
in all the preparations for resistance, in the carry- 
ing out of non-importation agreements, in the 
movement that created small factories and home 
industries to supply the lack of English imports, 
and later during the struggle for independence, 
the Connecticut colonists, whether Congregation- 
alists, patriotic Episcopalians, Baptists, or Sepa- 
ratists, worked as one. 

Toward the Separatists, oppressed dissenters 
yet loyal patriots, there began to be the feeling 
that some legislative favor should be shown. Ac- 
cordingly the Assembly, having them in mind, 
in 1770 passed the law that — 

no person in this Colony, professing the Christian 
protestant religion, who soberly and conscientiously 



328 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

dissent from the worship and ministry established or 
approved by the laws of this Colony arid attend pub- 
lic worship by themselves, shall incur any of the pen- 
alties . . . for not attending the worship- and ministry 
so established on the Lord's day or on account of their 
meeting together by themselves on said day for the 
public worship of God in a way agreeable to their 
consciences. 

And in October of the same year, it was fur- 
ther decreed that — 

all ministers of the gospel that now are or hereafter 
shall be settled in this Colony, during their continu- 
ance in the ministry, shall have all their estates 
lying in the same society as well as in the same town 
wherein they dwell exempted out of the lists of polls 
and rateable estates.^" 

But for the Separatists to obtain exemption 
from ecclesiastical taxes for the benefit of the 
Establishment required seven more years of argu- 
ment and appeal. During the time, they and 
the Baptists continued to increase in favor. The 
Separatist, Isaac Holly, preached and printed 
a sermon upholding the Boston tea-party. The 
Baptists were so patriotic as to later win from 
Washington his " I recollect with satisfaction 
that the religious society of which you are mem- 
bers have been throughout America uniformly 
and almost unanimously the firm friends of civil 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 329 

liberty, and the persevering promoters of our 
glorious revolution." 1^^ In 1774, good-will was 
shown to the Suffield Baptists by a favorable 
answer to their memorial to be relieved from 
illegal fines. In behalf of these Baptists, Gov- 
ernor Trumbull frequently exerted his influence. 
He also wrote to those of New Roxbury, who were 
in distress as to whether they had complied with 
the law, assuring them that the act of 1770 had 
done away with the older requirement of a special 
application to the General Assembly for permis- 
sion to unite in church estate.^^ Notwithstanding 
such favor, there was still so much injustice that 
the Baptists of Stamford wrote, during the rapid 
increase of the sect through the local revivals of 
1771-74, that the emigration from Connecticut 
of Baptists was because "the maxims of the 
land do not well suit the genius of our Order, 
and beside, the country is so fully settled, as pop- 
ulation increases, the surplusage must go abroad 
for settlements." 

Among the Baptists, the most vigorous cham- 
pion for mutual toleration and for liberty of 
conscience was Isaac Backus, "the father of 
American Baptists," and their first historian. In 
An Appeal to the Public /or Religious Liberty^ 
Boston, 1773, after calling attention to the lack 
of state provision in Massachusetts as well as in 



330 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Connecticut for ecclesiastical prisoners,!^^ he 
tlius defines the limits of spiritual and temporal 
power : — 

And it appears to us that the true difference and 
exact limits between ecclesiastical and civil govern- 
ment is this. That the church is armed with light 
and truth, to pull down the strongholds of iniquity 
and to gain souls to Christ and into his church to be 
governed by his rules therein ; and again to exclude 
such from their communion who will not be so gov- 
erned ; while the state is armed with the sword to 
guard the peace and to punish those who violate the 
same. Where they have been confounded together 
no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs 
that have ensued. ^^^ 

He proceeds to argue that every one has an 
equal right to choose his religion, since each one 
must answer at God's judgment seat for his own 
choice and his life's acts. Consequently, there 
is no warrant for the making of religious laws 
and the laying of ecclesiastical taxes. With this 
premise, it followed that the Baptist exemption 
act of 1729 was defective and unjust, in that it 
demanded certificates ; and from this time there 
began a steadily increasing opposition to the 
giving of these papers. Backus objected to the 
certificates upon several grounds, chief of which 
were : — 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 331 

(1) Because the very nature of such a practice im- 
plies an acknowledgement that the civil power has 
right to set one religious sect up above another. . . = 
It is a tacit allowance that they have the right to make 
laws about such things which we believe in our own 
conscience they have not. 

(2) The scheme we oppose tends to destroy the 
purity and life of religion. 

(3) The custom which they want us to countenance 
is very hurtful to civil society. . . . What a temptation 
then does it not lay for men to contract guilt when 
temporal advantages are annexed to one persuasion 
and disadvantages laid upon another ? i. e., in plain 
terms, how does it tend to lying hypocrisy and 
lying ? ^^^ 

In all his writings this man pleads the cause 
of religious liberty, and, whenever possible, he 
emphasizes the likeness of the struggle of the 
dissenters for freedom of conscience to that of 
the colonists for civil liberty, and argues the in- 
justice of wresting thousands of dollars from the 
Baptists for the support of a religion to them 
distasteful, while they exert themselves to the 
utmost to win political freedom for all ; " with 
what heart can we support the struggle ? " 

Two remarkable little books of some eighty 
or ninety pages that were issued from the Boston 
press in 1772 require a word of notice because 
of their hearty welcome. Two editions were called 



332 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

for within the year, and more than a thousand 
copies of the second were bespoken before it went 
to press. They had originally been put forth, the 
first in 1707, " The Churches Quarrel Espoused : 
or a Keply In Satyre to certain Proposals made, 
etc." (the Massachusetts " Proposals of 1705 "), 
and the second in 1717, "A Vindication of the 
Government of the New England Churches, 
Drawn from Antiquity ; Light of Nature ; Holy 
Scripture ; the Noble Nature ; and from the Dig- 
nity Divine Providence has put upon it." In 1772 
their author, the Rev. John Wise, a former 
pastor of the church in Ipswich, Massachusetts, 
had been dead for over forty years. In his day, 
he had regarded the " Proposals " as treasonable 
to the ancient polity of Congregationalism, and 
had attacked what he considered their assump- 
tions, absurdities, and inherent tyranny. His 
books were forceful in their own day, serving the 
churches, persuading those of Massachusetts to 
hold to the more democratic system of the Cam- 
bridge Platform, and largely affecting the char- 
acter of the later polity of the New England 
churches. The suffering colonist of 1772, smart- 
ing under English misrule, turned to the vigar- 
ous, clear, and convincing pages wherein John 
Wise set forth the natural rights of men, the 
quality of political obligation, the relative merits 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 333 

of government, whether monarchies, aristocracies, 
or democracies, and the well developed concept 
that civil government should be founded upon a 
belief in human equality. In his second attempt 
to defend the Cambridge Platform, Wise had 
advanced to the proposition that " Democracy is 
Christ's government in Church and State." ^^^ 

Such expositions as these, and those in Isaac 
Backus's " The Exact Limits between Civil and 
Ecclesiastical Government," published in 1777, 
and in his " Government and Liberty described," 
of 1778, together with the discussion prevalent 
at the time, and with the logic of the Revolution- 
ary events, opened the mind of the people to a 
clearer conception of liberty of conscience, though 
their practical application of the notion was de- 
ferred. For many years longer, persons had to 
be content with a toleration that was of itself a 
contradiction to religious liberty. Yet in May, 
1777, such toleration was broadened by the "Act 
for exempting those Persons in this State, com- 
monly styled Separates from Taxes for the Sup- 
port of the established Ministry and building and 
repairing Meeting Houses," on condition that 
they should annually lodge with the clerk of the 
Established Society, wherein they lived, a certifi- 
cate, vouching for their attendance upon and sup- 
port of their own form of worship. Said certificate 



334 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

was to be signed by the minister, elder, or deacon 
of the church which " they ordinarily did at- 
tend." 161 

Israel Holly's " An Appeal to the Impartial, 
or the Censured Memorial made Public, that it 
may speak for itself. To which is added a few 
Brief Remarks upon a Late Act of the General 
Assembly of the State of Connecticut, entitled 
an ' Act for Exempting those Persons in this 
State Commonly styled Separates, from Taxes for 
the Support of the Established Ministry &c.' " 
gave in full an " Appeal " of eleven Separatist 
churches to the General Assembly in May, 1770. 
That body would not suffer the petition to be 
read through, stopping the reader in the midst, 
while some of its members went so far as to de- 
clare that " all, who had signed it, ought to be 
sent for to make answer to the Court for their 
action." But the majority of the legislature were 
not so intolerant, so that during the session the 
act above mentioned was passed. Holly, in his 
book, includes with the " Appeal " a severe criti- 
cism of the new law, and, in quoting the petition, 
he gives a full explanation of its text as weU 
as the comments of the Assembly upon it and 
their objections to parts of it. When recounting 
the long struggle for toleration and in detail tlie 
persecutions of the Suffield Separatists, Holly 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 335 

dwells upon the fact that before the recent legis- 
lation of the Assembly, the spirit of fair dealing 
had in some communities influenced the members 
of the Establishment in their treatment of the 
Separatists. Holly also enlarges upon the incon- 
sistency between demanding freedom in temporal 
affairs from Great Britain and refusing it in 
spiritual ones to fellow-citizens. The " Censured 
Memorial " closes ^^^ ^ith an expressed determi- 
nation on the part of the Separatists to appeal to 
the Continental Congress if the state continue 
to refuse to do them justice. Holly, remarking 
upon the act of 177 T, expresses great dissatisfac- 
tion with it as falling short of the liberty desired, 
and, particularly, with its retention of the certif- 
icate clause. 

Such continued agitation of the rights of indi- 
viduals and of churchies eventually created a 
broader public opinion, one that, permeating the 
Establishment itself, tended to make its minis- 
ters resent any great exercise of authority on 
the part of those among them who clung to the 
strong Presbyterian construction of the Say- 
brook Articles. Communications upon the sub- 
ject of religious liberty were to be found in many 
of the newspapers. Two governors of Connecti- 
cut wrote pamphlets that tended to weaken the 
hold of the Saybrook Platform over the people. 



336 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Governor Wolcott in 1761 wrote against it, and in 
1765 Governor Fitch (anonymously) explained 
away its authoritative interpretation. The term 
"Presbyterian"- came to be applied more fre- 
quently to the conservative churches of the 
Establishment, and " Congregational " to those 
wherein the New Light ideas prevailed. Some 
years later, while the two terms were still used 
interchangeably, the term "Congregational" rose 
in favor, and, after the Revolution, included even 
the few Separatist churches. As for the latter, 
they had by 1770 concluded that with reference 
" to our Baptist brethren we are free to hold 
occasional communion with such as are regular 
churches and . . . make the Christian profes- 
sion and acknowledge us to be baptized." ^^^ For 
some years these two religious parties attempted 
to unite in associations, but finding that they 
disagreed too much on the question of baptism, 
they mutually decided to give up the attempt, 
and separated with the greatest respect and good 
will toward each other. In 1783, the Presby- 
terians refused to meet the Separatists in the 
attempt to devise some plan of union between 
them, but did advance to the concession "to 
admit Separatists to Ordination with the great- 
est care." ^^^ The Presbyterians were beginning 
to realize that if the Saybrook Platform was to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 337 

govern the churches of the Establishment, its 
old judicial interpretation must give way. An 
example of the revolt to be anticipated, if such 
interpretation were insisted upon, followed the 
attempt by the Consociation of Windham in 
1780 to discipline Isaac Foster, a Presbyterian 
minister, for " sundry doctrines looked upon as 
dangerous and contrary to the gospel ; " " and 
a similar attempt to reprove Mr. Sage of West 
Simsbury drew forth such stirring retorts from 
Isaac Foster and from Dan Foster, minister of 
Windsor (who defended Mr. Sage), that church 
after church promptly renounced the Saybrook 
Platform. These churches agreed with Isaac 
Foster in his declaration of the absolute inde- 
pendence of each church and that — 

no clergyman or number of clergymen or ecclesi- 
astical council of whatever denomination have right 
to make religious creeds, canons or articles of faith 
and impose them upon any man or church on earth 
requiring subscription to them. ... A church should 
be the sole judge of its pastor's teachings so long as 
he teaches nothing expressly contrary to the Bible. 

^ Foster replied : " One man is not to be called a ' here- 
tick,' purely because he differs from another, as to the arti- 
cles of faith. For either we should all be ' hereticks ' or there 
would be no ' heresy ' among- us. . . . Heresy does not consist 
in opinion or sentiments : it is not an error of head but of 
will." — Foster, A Defense of Religious Liberty, p. 47. 



338 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

. . . The Consociation has no right to pretend that 
it is a divinely instituted assembly with the Say- 
brook Platform for its charter, imposing a tyranny 
more intolerable on the people than that from which 
they are trying to free themselves. ^^^ 

The result of all this agitation for liberty of 
conscience, emphasized by its counterpart in the 
political life of the state and nation, was that in 
the first edition of the " Laws and Acts of the 
State of Connecticut in America," '^ appearing in 
1784, all reference to the Saybrook Platform 
was omitted, and all ecclesiastical laws were 
grouped under the three heads entitled Eights of 
Conscience, Regulations of Societies, and the 
Observation of the Sabbath.^^^ Under the Sun- 
day laws, together with numerous negative com- 
mands, was the positive one that every one, who, 
for any trivial reason, absented himself from 
public worship on the Lord's day should pay a 
fine of three shillings, or fifty cents. The society 
regulations remained much the same, with the 
added privilege that to all religious bodies recog- 
nized by law permission was given to manage 
their temporal affairs as freely as did the churches 
of the Establishment. Dissenters were even per- 
mitted to join themselves to religious societies in 

^ This revision of the laws was in charge of Roger Sherman 
and Richard Law. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 339 

adjoining states," provided the place of worship 
was not too far distant for the Connecticut mem- 
bers to regularly attend services. To these terms 
of toleration was affixed the sole condition of 
presenting a certificate of membership signed by 
an officer of the church of which the dissenter 
was a member, and that the certificate should be 
lodged with the clerk of the Established society 
wherein the dissenter dwelt. While legislation 
still favored the Establishment, toleration was 
extended with more honesty and with better 
grace. All strangers coming into the state were 
allowed a choice of religious denominations, but 
while undecided were to pay taxes to the society 
lowest on the list. Choice was also given for 
twelve months to resident minors upon their 
coming of age, and also to widows. In any ques- 
tion, or doubt, the society to which the father, 
husband, or head of the household belonged, or 
had belonged, determined the church home of 
members of the household unless the certificates 
of all dissenting members were on file. If per- 
sons were undecided when the time of choice had 
elapsed, and they had not presented certificates, 
they were counted members of the Establish- 
ment. Thus the Say brook Platform, no longer 

« Quakers and Baptists frequently crossed the state line to 
attend services in Rhode Island. 



340 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

appearing upon tlie law-book, was quietly rele- 
gated to the status of a voluntarily accepted 
ecclesiastical constitution which the different 
churches might accept, interpreting it with only 
such degrees of strictness as they chose. Conse- 
quently, all Congregational and Presbyterian 
churches drew together and remained intimately 
associated with the government as setting forth 
the form of religion it approved. 

As toleration was more freely extended, op- 
pression quickly ceased. The smaller and weaker 
sects ° that appeared in Connecticut after 1770 
received no such persecution as their predeces- 
sors. Among them the Sandemanians * appeared 
about 1766, and from the first created consid- 
erable interest. The Shakers were permitted 
to form a settlement at Enfield in 1780. The 
Universalists began making converts among the 

« There was only an occasional Romanist ; Unitarians first 
took their sectarian name in 1815 ; Universalists were few in 
number until the second quarter of the new century. 

^ This sect received its name from Robert Sandeman, the 
son-in-law of its founder, the Rev. John Glass of Scotland. 
Sandeman published their doctrines about 1757. In 1764, he 
left Scotland and came to America, where he began making' 
converts near Boston, in other parts of New England, and in 
Nova Scotia. He died at Danbury, Connecticut, 1771. The 
members of the sect are called Glassites in Scotland, where 
the Rev. John Glass labored. He died there in 1773. See W. 
Walker, in American Hist. Assoc. Annual Report, 1901, vol. i. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 341 

Separatist churches of Norwich as early as 1772. 
The year 1784 saw the organization of the New 
London Seventh-day Baptist church, the first of 
its kind in Connecticut. 

The abrogation of the Saybrook Platform was 
implied, not expressed, by dropping it out of 
the revised laws of 1784. The force of custom, 
not the repeal of the act of establishment, an- 
nulled it. As in the revision of 1750, certain 
outgrown statutes were quietly sloughed off. 
After the abrogation of the Saybrook system, 
the orthodox dissenters felt most keenly the hu- 
miliation of giving the required certificates, and 
the favoritism shown by the government towards 
Presbyterian or Congregational churches. This 
favoritism did not confine itself to ecclesiastical 
affairs, but showed itself by the government's 
preference for members of the Establishment in 
all civil, judicial, and military offices. If immedi- 
ately after the Revolution this favoritism was 
not so marked, it quickly developed out of all 
proportion to justice among fellow-citizens. 



CHAPTER XII 

CONNECTICUT AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLU- 
TION 

The piping- times of peace. 

During the fifteen years following the ratifica- 
tion of the Constitution of the United States by- 
Connecticut, January 9, 1788, no conspicuous 
events mark her history. These years were for 
the most part years of quiet growth and of 
expansion in aU directions, and, because of this 
steady advancement, she was soon known as " the 
land of steady habits " and of general prosperity. 
Even in the dark days of the Revolution, Con- 
necticut's energetic people had continued to pop- 
ulate her waste places, and had carved out new 
towns from old townships, — for the last of the 
original plats had been marked off in 1763. In 
1779-80, the state laid out five towns ; from 
1784 to 1787, twenty-one, — twelve of them in 
one year, 1786." Tolland County was divided 
ofe in 1786 as Windham had been in 1726, 

« Five towns were laid out in 1785 ; from 1784 to 1787, 
twenty-one in all ; from 1787 to 1800, ten ; and from 1800 to 
1818, eleven. — HoUister, Hist, of Connecticut, pp. 469-70. 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 343 

Litchfield in 1751, and Middlesex in 1765. 
These, with the four original counties of Fair- 
field, New Haven, Hartford, and New London, 
made the present eight counties of the state. 
The cities of Hartford, New Haven, New Lon- 
don, Middletown, and Norwich were incorporated 
in 1784. They were scarcely more than villages 
of to-day, for New Haven approximated 3,000 
inhabitants, and Hartford, as late as 1810, only 
4,000, The Litchfield of the post-Revolutionary 
days, ranking, as a trade-centre, fourth in the 
state, was as familiar with Indians in her streets 
as the Milwaukee of the late fifties, and "out 
west " was no farther in miles than the Connect- 
icut Eeserve of 3,800,000 acres in Ohio which, 
in 1786, the state had reserved, when ceding her 
western lands to the new nation. Thither emi- 
gration was turning, since its check on the Sus- 
quehanna and Delaware by the award, in 1782, 
to Pennsylvania of the contested jurisdiction 
over those lands, and of the little town of West- 
moreland, which the Yankees had built there.'^ 

" Of the seven hundred members of the Susquehanna Land 
Company, formed in 1754, six hundred and thirty-eight were 
Connecticut men. A summer settlement was made on the 
Delaware in 1757 and on the Susquehanna in 1762. The first 
permanent settlement was in 1769. At the close of the Revo- 
lution, renewed attempts to colonize resulted in a reign of 
lawlessness and bloodshed. 



344 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

After the decision new settlements were dis- 
couraged by the bitter feuds between the Con- 
necticut and Pennsylvanian claimants to the 
land. 

The Eevolution had left Connecticut ex- 
hausted in men and in means. Her largest 
seaboard towns had suffered severely. With her 
commerce and coasting trade almost destroyed, 
she found herseK, during the period preceding 
the adoption of the national Constitution and the 
establislnnent of the revenue system, a prey to 
New York's need on the one hand and to Massa- 
chusetts' sense of impoverishment on the other; 
and thus, for every article imported through 
either state, Connecticut paid an impost tax. It 
was estimated that she thus provided one third 
of the cost of government for each of her neigh- 
bors. Consequently she attempted to reinstate 
and to enlarge her early though limited com- 
merce, and was soon sending cargoes, preemi- 
nently of the field and pasture,*^ to exchange for 
West India commodities, while with her larger 
vessels she developed an East Indian trade. As 
another means to wealth, the state, in 1791, 

<* Horses, cattle, beef, pork, staves, flour, grain. During the 
European wars, the United States exported foodstuffs in great 
quantities, to feed both French and English armies, amounting 
to over 100,000 men. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 345 

passed laws for the encouragement of the small 
factories'^ that the necessity of the war had 
created ; but it was not until after the act of 
1833, creating the joint-stock companies, that 
Connecticut turned from a purely agricultural 
community to the great manufacturing state we 
know to-day. She shared in the national pros- 
perity, which, as early as 1792, proved the wisdom 
of Hamilton's financial policy, and about 1795 
her citizens wisely bent themselves to the improve- 
ment of internal communication. This was the era 
of the development of the turnpike and of the 
multiplicity of stage-lines. Eegular stages plied 
between the larger cities. Yet up to 1789 there 
was not a post-of&ce or a mail route in Litchfield 
county, and the " Monitor " was started as a 
weekly paper to circulate the news. In 1790 Litch- 
field had a fortnightly carrier to New York and 
a weekly one to Hartford, while communication 

'^ President Stiles was interested in silk culture and in the 
manufacture of silk. His commencement gown in 1789 was of 
Connecticut make. Through the efforts of General Humphreys 
(1784-94) attempts were made to introduce the Spanish merino 
sheep and to establish factories for fine broadcloth. Iron 
works were set up in different parts of the state. The earliest 
cotton factories centred about Pomfret. Clocks, watches, 
cut shingle -nails, paper, stone, and earthenware pottery, were 
among the manufactures started in Norwalk between 1767 
and 1773, while in Windham, hosiery, silk and tacks were 
manufactured. 



346 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

with the second capital " of the state was frequent. 
From 1800, there was a daily stage to Hart- 
ford, New Haven, Norwalk, Poughkeepsie, and 
Albany.i^^ Wagons and carriages began to mul- 
tiply and to replace saddle-bags and piUions, yet 
as late as 1815 Litchfield town had only " one 
phaeton, one coachee, and forty-six two-wheeled 
pleasure-wagons." ^^^ 

Towns continued to commend and encourage 
good public schools. Every town or parish of 
seventy families had to keep school eleven months 
of the year, and those of less population for at 
least six months. Private schools and academies 
sprang up.* Harvard and Yale, as the best 
equipped of the New England colleges, competed 

« In 1701 the General Court enacted that the May session of 
the Legislature should be held at New Haven, and the October 
one at Hartford. This was a concession to the former sover- 
eignty of the New Haven Colony. The arrangement continued 
untU. 1873. The biennial sessions, introduced by the constitu- 
tion of 1818, alternated between the two capitols. 

* " Mr. Dwight is enlarging his School to comprehend the 
Ladies, . . . promising to carry them through a course of 
belles Lettres, Geography, Philosophy, and Astronomy. The 
spirit for Academy making is vigorous." — Stiles Diary, iii, 
247. 

Of the academies, the more famous were Lebanon, Plain- 
field, Greenfield (under Dr. Dwight), Norwich, Windham, 
Waterbury (for both sexes), and Stratfield from 1783 to 1786. 
There was also a second school in Norwich from 1783 to 1786. 
See Stiles Diary, iii, 248. 



LIBERTY m CONNECTICUT 347 

for its young men, and drew others from the 
central and southern sections of the nation. 
Neither had either Divinity or Law School.*^ 
Young men after completing their college course 
usually went to some famous minister for gradu- 
ate training. Rev. Joseph Bellamy, John Smalley, 
and Jonathan Edwards, Junior, were the fore- 
most teachers in Connecticut, though the first- 
named had ceased his active work in 1787.^ The 
New Divinity was very slowly spreading. Even 
as late as 1792, President Stiles of Yale declared 
that none of the churches had accepted it.^ This 

« Harvard Divinity School was established 1815 ; Yale, 1822. 
Previously both universities had each a professor of divinity. 

^ " For three years and three months before his [Bellamy's] 
death he was disabled by a paralytic Shock, w" impaired his 
Intellect as well as debilitated his Body. Few were equal to 
him in the Desk & he was Communicative and instructive in 
Conversation upon religious Subjects." The passage closes 
with the prophecy, " His numerous noisy Writings have blazed 
their day, and one Generation more will put them to sleep." — 
Stiles Diary, March 16, 1790 (on hearing the news of Bellamy's 
death). See vol. iii, pp. 384-385. See Trumbull, ii, 159, for a 
more favorable opinion. 

'^ Referring to the successor of Dr. Wales in the Yale chair 
of divinity, Pres. Stiles wrote, " An Old Divinity man will be 
acceptable to all the Old Divy. Ministers & to all the Churches : 
a New Div' man will be acceptable to all the New Divy. Min- 
isters and to None of the Churches, as none of the Chhs. in New 
Engl, are New Div'."— Stiles Diary, iii, 506, note (Sept. 8, 1793). 
See also tinder date of Nov. 16, 1786, where churches are said 
to take New Divinity pastors " because they can get no others, 
but persons in the parish know nothing of the New Theology." 



348 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

versatile minister interested himself in languages, 
literatures, natural science, and in all religions, 
as well as in the phases of New England theology. 
He esteemed piety and sound doctrine, whether 
in Old or New Divinity men, and welcomed to 
his communion all of good conscience who be- 
longed to any Christian Protestant sect. He was 
liberal-minded and tolerant beyond the average 
of his colleagues. His tolerance, however, was 
more for the old Calvinistic principles in the 
New Divinity, and not for its advanced features, 
for which he had little regard. President Stiles 
held very firmly to the belief that his ministerial 
privileges and authority remained with him after 
he became president of the college, although he 
was no longer pastor by the election of a particu- 
lar church. 

The first law school in America was estab- 
lished in Litchfield in 1784 by Judge Tappan 
Reeve, later chief justice of Connecticut. He 
associated with him in 1798 Judge James Gould. 
" Judge Peeve loved law as a science and studied 
it philosophically." He wished " to reduce it to 
a system, for he considered it as a practical 
application of moral and religious principles to 
business life." His students were drilled in the 
study of the Constitution of the United States 
and on the current legislation in Congress. Under 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 349 

Judge Gould, the common law was expounded 
methodically and lucidly, as it could be only by 
one who knew its principles and their underlying 
reasons from a to z?-^^ In 1789, Ephraim Kirby 
of Litchfield published the first law reports ever 
issued in the United States." Law students from 
many states were attracted to the town. The 
roll of the school, kept regularly only after 1798, 
included over one thousand lawyers, among them 
one vice-president of the United States, several 
foreign ministers, five cabinet ministers,* two 
justices of the United States Supreme Court, ten 
governors of states, sixteen United States sen- 
ators, fifty members of Congress, forty judges of 
the higher state courts, and eight chief justices 
of the state.170 

Among Connecticut towns, the two capitals 
of the state were also literary centres, while Nor- 
wich, New Haven, and New London were fast 
becoming commercial ports. Middle town soon had 
considerable coasting trade. Wethersfield had 
vessels of her own. Even Saybrook and Milford 

<* " Law Reports of the Superior and Supreme Courts, 1785- 
1788, by E. Kirby. Just published at this office and ready 
for subscribers and gentlemen disposed to purchase, for which 
most kinds of country produce will be received." — Advertise- 
ment in Litchfield Monitor of Apr. 13, 1789. 

^ Calhoun, Woodbury, Mason, Clayton, and Hubbard. Judge 
Reeve retired in 1820 ; Judge Gould in 1833. 



360 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

sent a few vessels to the West and East Indies. 
Farmington was a big trading centre, shipping 
produce abroad and importing in vessels of her 
own that sailed from Wethersfield or New Haven. 
Some few towns developed a special industry, 
like Berlin and New Britain, that made the Con- 
necticut tin-peddler a familiar figure even in the 
Middle and Southern states. There were also 
several towns with large shipyards, where some 
of the largest ships were built. But back of all 
such centres of activity, the whole state was sol- 
idly agricultural. Connecticut's commerce was 
an import commerce exchanging natural prod- 
ucts for foreign ones, such as sugar, coffee, and 
molasses from the West Indies ; tea and luxuries 
from the East ; and obtaining, either directly or 
indirectly, from Europe, all the fine manufactured 
products, whether stuffs for personal use or tools 
for labor. 

In measuring the prosperity and intelligence 
of the Connecticut people neither the parish 
library nor the newspaper must be overlooked. 
" I am acquainted," wrote Noah Webster in 1790, 
" with parishes where almost every householder 
has read the works of Addison, Sherlock, Atter- 
bury. Watts, Young, and other familiar writings : 
and will conversely handsomely on the subjects 
of which they treat." ^^^ " By means of the gen- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 351 

eral circulation of the public papers," wrote tlie 
same author, "the people are informed of all 
political affairs ; and their representatives are 
often prepared to debate upon propositions made 
in the legislature." ^'^^ 

Through the agricultural communities of Con- 
necticut, as well as in the towns, the weekly 
newspapers of the state began to circulate freely 
as soon as carriers or mail routes were estab- 
lished. Even by 1785 there was in Connecticut 
a newspaper circulation of over 8000 weekly 
copies, which was equal to that published in the 
whole territory south of Philadelphia.^^^ These 
papers lacked locals and leaders, leaving the 
former to current gossip, and for the latter sub- 
stituting, to some extent, letters and correspond- 
ence. The newspapers gave foreign news three 
months old, the proceedings of Congress in from 
ten to twelve days after their occurrence, and 
news from the Connecticut elections three weeks 
late. Subjects relating to religion and politics 
were heard pro and con in articles, or rather 
letters, signed with grandiloquent pseudonyms 
and frequently marked " Papers, please copy " 
in order to secure for them a larger public. 
Fantastic bits of natural science, or what pur- 
ported to be such, and stilted admonitions to 
virtue, as well as poems, eulogies, and obituaries, 



352 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

were admitted to the columns of these colonial 
papers. In 1786, the " Connecticut Courant " 
apologized for its meagre reports of legis- 
lative proceedings, especially of those of the 
Upper House, Council, or Senate, and promised 
to give full details. This reporting was a new 
thing, and it was fuUy five years more before 
the practice became general among the half dozen 
papers published in Connecticut.*^ Space was 
also given in the papers to the reproduction of 
selections, even whole chapters, from current and 
popular writers. Among such letters was a series 
on " the Establishment of the Worship of the 
Deity essential to National Happiness." In one 
of the letters, the author suggests : — 

To secure the advantages . . . allow me to pro- 
pose a general and equitable tax collected from all 
the rateable members of a state, for the support of 
the public teachers of religion, of all denominations, 
within the state. . . . Let a moderate poll tax be 
added to a tax of a specified sum on the pound, and 
levied on all the subjects of a state and collected with 
the public tax, and paid out to the public teachers of 
religion of the several denominations in proportion to 
the number of polls or families, belonging to each re- 
spectively ; or according to their estimates. [For] 

1. It would be equitable. 

** Reporters were admitted to the national Hoase of Repre- 
sentatives in 1790 and to the Senate in 1802. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 353 

2. It would be for the good order of the civil 
state. 

3. All ought to contribute to such a religious edu- 
cation of the people as would conduce to civil order. 

4. It would promote the peace in towns and socie- 
ties. 

5. It would do away with the legal expenses con- 
sequent upon difficulties in collecting rates. 

6. It would '^ extinguish the ardor of the founders 
of new delusions and their weak and mercenary 
abettors." 

7. It would prevent separation except upon the 
firmest principles ; " the powerful motive of saving 
a penny or two in the pound, would cease to operate, 
because their tax would continue still the same, go 
where they will." "^ 

It was also suggested that the Assembly should 
fix ministers' salaries at so much per hundred 
families, and that congregations should be per- 
mitted to add to the annual grant by voluntary 
contributions. These are but examples of the 
reaching out of the public mind for some equi- 
table method of enforcing the support of public 
worship, — a principle to which the majority still 
adhered. 

The Laws of the State of Connecticut, under 
which after the Eevolution parishes were organ- 
ized, contained no reference to the Episcopal 
church as such. All societies and congregations 



354 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

were placed on the same footing precisely, i.e., 
they " had power to provide for the support of 
public worship by the rent or sale of pews or 
slips in the meeting-house, by the establishment 
of funds, or in any other way they might deem 
expedient." With this amount of freedom Epis- 
copalians were content, since by the consecra- 
tion, in 1784, of Samuel Seabury, Bishop of 
Connecticut, their ecclesiastical equipment was 
complete." Further, many of them had been 
Tories, and, satisfied with the clemency shown 
them at the close of the war by the authorities, 
they gladly affiliated with them in all Federal 
measures of national importance, and also, for 
over thirty years, in all local issues. 



« Bishop Seabury was consecrated by the Scotch non-juring 
bishops, Nov. 14, 1786. The latter, about four years later, were 
restored to their position as an integral part of the Ang-lican 
hierarchy. Meanwhile, Dr. Samuel Provoost of New York 
and Dr. William White of Pennsylvania, on Feb. 4, 1787, were 
consecrated by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, 
assisted by the Bishops of Wells and Peterborough, after a 
special Act of Parliament permitting the consecration to take 
place without the usual oaths of allegiance to the King as head 
of the church. In 1789, Bishop Seabury became president of 
the House of Bishops thus formed in America. The follow- 
ing year, James Madison of Virginia was consecrated by the 
English bishops, thus giving to the United States three bish- 
ops after the English succession, so that the validity of the 
Scottish rite should not be questioned in the consecration of 
future American bishops. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 355 

From 1783 to 1787 there was throughout the 
United States a general disintegration of politi- 
cal parties.^^^ Federalists and nascent Anti- 
Federalists were alike seeking some basis fci a 
safe national existence. The Constitution once 
established, political parties differentiated them- 
selves as the party in power and the " out-party " 
developed their respective interpretations of the 
Constitution and of measures permitted under 
it. The Anti-Federalist party in Connecticut is 
sometimes said to have been born in 1783 out 
of opposition both to the Commutation Act of 
the Continental Congress, voting five years' full 
pay instead of half -pay for life to the Eevolu- 
tionary officers, and to the formation of the Cin- 
cinnati. Both of these measures touched the 
main spring of party difference. America had 
caste as well as Europe. Though of a different 
type, it existed in every town and county. There 
were the people of position, attained by family 
standing, professional prominence, superior in- 
telligence (rarely by wealth alone), and then, 
as now, by natural leadership. There were the 
common people of ordinary abilities and meagre 
possessions, who looked up to this first class. 
Between the two there was an invisible barrier. 
The customs of the day emphasized it. Yet 
the institutions of the land and its democracy 



356 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

demanded that tMs barrier, not impassable to men 
of parts and character who could push up from 
the masses, should never become insurmountable, 
as it often did under a monarchy ; that it should 
be steadily leveled by intrusting the governing 
power more and more to the whole people, rather 
than to a few leaders ; and by educating the 
masses up to their responsibilities. But many 
of the leading Federalists preferred to concen- 
trate power in the hands of the few, hesitating to 
trust the judgment of the great body of citizens 
with the new and novel government. And to 
the people at large any measure that bore a re- 
mote resemblance to monarchical institutions or 
monarchical aspirations — however far remote 
from either — was subject to suspicion and antag- 
onism. The Cincinnati might be the beginning 
of a nobility, and half-pay or five years' full pay 
to the officers ignored the common soldiery who 
had done most of the fighting, and who had 
suffered even more severely in their fortunes." 

« The eighty dollars proposed for privates would not go far 
toward mending broken fortunes, or care for broken constitu- 
tions and crippled bodies. 

At the Middletown Convention, Sept. 3, 1783, delegates 
from Hartford, Wethersfield, and Glastonbury met to de- 
nounce the Commutation Act. At its adjourned meeting on 
Sept. 30 fifty towns, a majority in the state, disapproved the 
Act in an address to the General Assembly, and called attention 
to the Society of the Cincinnati. At the last meeting, March, 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 357 

When the measures of the first Congress pressed 
hardest upon the impoverished landed proprietors 
of the South and upon the small farmers in other 
sections of the country, they welded the landed 
aristocracy of the South and the democracy of 
the North into the Anti-Federal party. Add to 
their sense of impoverishment, their common 
hatred of England, and these classes would hold 
their prejudice longer than the merchants, the 
lawyers, and the clergy, whose business, studies, 
and labors would tend to soften the antagonism 
created by the war. New England, however, was 
largely Federal, and Connecticut was one of the 
strongholds of that party, priding herseH upon 
returning Federal electors as long as there was 
the shadow of the Federal name to vote for. 
Moreover, the " Presbyterian Consociated Con- 
gregational Church " and the Federalists were 
so closely allied that the party of the government 
and the party of the Establishment were famil- 
iarly and collectively known as the " Standing 
Order." During the early years of statehood, 
by far the larger number of the dissenters were 
also good Federalists. But they drew away from 

1784, an address to the people of the state was framed which 
condemned both the Commutation Act and the Cincinnati. — 
J. H. Trumbull, Notes on the Constitution, p. 18. Noah Web- 
ster, History of the Parties in the United States, pp. 317-320. 



358 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the party at a later date, when the Democratic- 
Republicans began, in their Connecticut state 
politics, to call for a broader suffrage and fuU 
religious liberty, while the Federal Standing 
Order still continued to claim, as within its 
patronage, legal favors, political office, and the 
honors of judicial, military, and civil life. 

After the Revolution, the rapidly increasing 
Baptists continued their warfare waged against 
certificates and in behalf of religious liberty. 
Methodists soon sympathized, for Methodist itin- 
erants, entering Connecticut in 1789, gained a 
footing, in spite of much opposition and real op- 
pression through fines and imprisonments," and 

" Methodism was twenty-eight years old, when, in 1766, 
Robert Strawbridge introduced it into New York, and Philip 
Embury preached his first sermon in a sail-loft. In 1771, 
Francis Asbury, later Bishop Asbury, was appointed John 
Wesley's " Assistant " in America. In 1773, the first Annual 
Conference was held. Methodism rapidly spread in the Middle 
and Southern states. By the year 1773-74, the year's increase 
in members was nine hundred and thirteen ; in 1774-75, ten 
hundred and seventy- three. The preachers traveled on foot 
or on horseback, preaching as they went ; living on the smallest 
allowance ; sleeping where night overtook them ; and meeting 
often with grudging hospitality, suspicion, and, sometimes, 
open violence. 

Methodism " began when Episcopacy was at its lowest point, 
both in efficiency, and in the good-will of the people." It 
agreed with Jonathan Edwards on the nature of personal 
religion, and separated from the Church of England in this, 
the Methodist's central principle of " conscious conversion " or 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 359 

quickly made many converts. Their preacliers 
urged upon penurious and backward members 
the importance of voluntary support of the gospel 
in almost the same words as those of the Bap- 
tist leader : " It is as real robbery to neglect 
the ordinances of God, as it is to force people to 
support preachers who will not trust his influence 

" emotional experience." Later in New Eng-land, Wesley's 
missionaries united in Methodist societies many of the converts 
to the Edwardean theology. 

At the opening of the Revolution, the whole body of Meth- 
odists were within the Church of England. Of the English 
missionaries only Asbury, Dempster, and Wharcott remained 
in America to carry on, with native preachers, the work of 
proselytizing. It was " the only form of religion that advanced 
in America during that dark period, and during the war, it 
more than quadrupled both its ministry and members." At 
the beginning of the war, it had eighty traveling preachers, 
beside local preachers and exhorters ; a membership of one 
thousand, and auditors ten thousand. In 1784, there was a year's 
increase of fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight 
members, and of one hundred and four preachers to rejoice in 
the consecration of Bishop Asbury. In the November of that 
year. Bishops Coke and Asbury, organizing the "American 
Episcopal Church," in spite of Wesley's anathemas probably 
led out one hundred thousand souls as the nucleus of the new 
church. 

For a while the Connecticut authorities refused to recognize 
" as sober Dissenters " any converts other than the stationed 
preachers and their charges. The persecutions which the 
Methodists suffered were those of slander, the refusal to them 
of halls, churches, or public buildings ; the refusal to permit 
their ministers, unless located, to perform the marriage cere- 
mony ; and petty fines, with occasional unjust imprisonment. 



360 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

for a temporal living." ^''^ Baptists, Methodists, 
and many other dissenters were far from satis- 
fied with their status, and the government from 
time to time was forced to take notice of the dis- 
satisfaction. Temporary legislation was enacted 
to allay the unrest, but, as there was a settled 
determination to protect the Establishment and 
to keep the political leadership among its friends, 
the various measures were not successful. For 
instance, the legislature in 1785-86 had arranged 
for the sale of the Westeto Lands and for the 
money expected from their sale to be divided 
among the various Christian bodies, and it had 
also enacted — 

that there shall he reserved to the public five hun- 
dred acres of land in each township for the support 
of the gospel ministry and five hundred acres more 
for the support of schools in such towns forever ; and 
two hundred and forty acres of good ground in each 
town to be granted in fee simple to the first gospel 
minister who shall settle in such town.^'^'^ 

Nothing is here said of the Presbyterians, or 
of any other sect, yet that denomination was sure 
to receive the greater benefit under the working 
of the law. They were a wealthy body, and in 
the next year, they began, under the General 
Association of Connecticut, to renew their earlier 
efforts for an organized planting of missions. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 361 

Attempts to establisli missionary posts were be- 
gun as early as 1774, but they had been inter- 
rupted by the war, and were not revived until 
1780, when two missionaries were sent to Ver- 
mont. After a little, the missionary spirit lan- 
guished through lack of support ; but interest had 
been roused again by the promised lands and 
money from the sales in the Western Reserve, 
and by the contributions that, flowing in from 
1788 to 1791, warranted the dispatch of mission- 
aries into the western field in 1792, and regu- 
larly thereafter.^^^ 

Turning to the religious and more strictly 
theological side of the development of toleration, 
there was within the Establishment itself a grad- 
ual modification of opinion concerning member- 
ship. It was witnessed to by the contents of a 
book entitled " Christian Forbearance to Weak 
Consciences a Duty of the Gospel," by John 
Lewis of Stepney parish, Wethersfield. It was 
sent out in 1789 for the purpose of " Attempting 
to prove that Persons, absenting themselves from 
the Lord's Table, through honest scruples of 
Conscience, is not such a breach of Covenant 
but that they partake other Privileges." One 
may recall that twenty years previous, 1769-71, 
Dr. Bellamy was thundering not only against 
the Half- Way Covenant, but also against the 



362 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Stoddardean view of the Lord's Supper as a 
" means " of grace, — as a sacrament the par- 
taking of which would help unworthy or uncon- 
verted men to conversion and to the leading of 
moral and holy lives. One might, for a moment, 
anticipate that the Wethersfield pastor was hark- 
ing back to the old idea. But this was not his 
point of view. " I reprobate," he writes, " the idea 
of a Half- Way Covenant, or sealing of such a 
covenant." ^"^ Lewis contended that all seekers 
after holiness were to enter the church through 
the " very same covenant," but that to all of 
them were to be extended the same and all church 
privileges, and that they were to accept them 
" as far as in their conscience they can see their 
way clear, hoping for further light." If they 
could accept baptism and church oversight, and 
could not, because of honest scruples of con- 
science (lest they were not worthy), approach the 
Lord's Table, they were not for that reason to 
be considered reprobates. As to such charity open- 
ing a way for persons of immoral lives to creep 
into the churches or to put off wilKully the par- 
taking of communion, the author's experience of 
many years had proved the contrary, though he 
could not deny that the possibility of hypocrisy 
and backsliding might exist under any form of 
membership. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 363 

As a side light upon the growth of toleration 
during twenty years within the churches of the 
Establishment, two entries in President Stiles's 
diary may be quoted. Writing in 1769, to the 
Eev. Noah Wells of Stamford, Conn., with refer- 
ence to the call of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins to 
a pastorate in Newport, R. I., where Dr. Stiles 
was then preaching, the latter says : " If I find 
him (Hopkins) of a Disposition to live in an 
honorable Friendship, I shall gladly cultivate it. 
But he must not expect that I recede from my 
Sentiments both in Theology and ecclesiastical 
Polity more than he from his, in which I pre- 
sume he is immovably fixed. We shall certainly 
differ in some things. I shall endeavor to my 
utmost to live with him as a Brother ; as I think 
(it) dishonorable that in almost every populous 
place on this Continent, where there are two or 
naore Presb. [yterian] or Cong, [regational] Chhs. 
[churches], they should be at greater variance 
than Prot. [estants] and Romanists : witness 
every city or Town from Georgia to Nova Scotia 
(except Portsm*^) " where there are more Presb. 
chhs than one. The Wound is well nigh healed 
here, may it not break out again." ^^^ Writ- 
ing some two years after the appearance of 
Lewis's book. President Stiles, commenting upon 

« Portsmouth, N. H. 



364 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the fact that each dissenting sect was so absolutely- 
sure that it alone had the only perfect type 
of faith and polity, notes the greater tolerance 
among the Congregational churches, for the 
latter were not as a rule close communion 
churches, as were those of the dissenting sects. 

Indeed, the intolerance shown towards dis- 
senters was by this time not so much sectarian, 
not so much a lack of tolerance toward slightly 
varying fundamentals of faith, form of worship, 
and organization, as an intolerance based upon 
the conviction that the body politic must be pro- 
tected by a state church. There was, of course, a 
little of the exasperating sense of superiority in 
belonging to the favored Establishment. The 
old objection to dissent as heresy — as a sin for 
which the community was responsible — had 
for the most part given way to opposition to it as 
introducing a system of voluntary contributions 
for the support of religion. And there was a 
very general and well-defined fear that such a 
support would prove inadequate. If so, deterio- 
ration of the state and of its people would follow. 
For individual worth and character, many among 
the dissenters were highly respected, and the 
great body of them were esteemed good citizens. 
Among the churches, some few of the established 
ones were beginning to have their own services 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 365 

occasionally conducted by dissenting ministers. 
The First Society of Canterbury entered a vote 
to this effect in 1791. As the churches trans- 
lated more liberally the Articles of the Saybrook 
Platform, they approached a polity more in com- 
mon with that of Separatist and Baptist. By 
1800, the teachings of John Wise of Ipswich, 
reinforced by those of Nathaniel Emmons, " the 
father of modern Congregationalism," had per- 
meated all New England. Wise, in his efforts to 
revive the independence of the single churches, 
had exploded the Barrowism which New England 
usage had introduced into original Congregation- 
alism, and the rebound had carried the churches 
as far beyond the Cambridge Platform towards 
original Brownism as the Presbyterian movement 
had carried their polity away from the Cam- 
bridge instrument.i^i The later Edwardean school 
had devoted itself to the discussion of doctrine 
rather than to polity, and, in the alliance with 
Presbyterianism outside of Connecticut, it had 
affiliated without attaching much weight to dif- 
ferences in church government. Their common 
interest, at first, was to unite against a pos- 
sible supremacy of the Church of England, and 
against the danger to their own churches and to 
good government from the increase of dissent- 
ers. Later, their united efforts were directed to 



366 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

forwarding Christian missions in order that the 
gospel might not be left out of the civilization 
on the frontier. In this later work, they had 
competitors as soon as the Baptists and Metho- 
dists became strongly organized bodies. Accord- 
ingly Presbyterians and Congregationalists still 
further sank their differences of discipline in the 
Plan of Union of 1801, formed for the further- 
ance of the mission work. Thus it was many 
years before questions of polity again took front 
rank in the Congregational churches. Already 
their very indifference to it, the long years of the 
gradual abandonment of the Saybrook system, 
together with the development in civil life of a 
broader conception of humanity, had tended to 
bring back the independence of the individual 
church, while custom had preserved the inrooted 
principle of church-fellowship. It needed only 
Nathaniel Emmons to embody practice and opin- 
ion in a system that should break away from the 
aristocratic Congregationalism, the semi-Presby- 
terianized Congregationalism of the eighteenth 
century, and give to the nineteenth a democracy 
in the Church equivalent to that in the State. 
Emmons, however, carried his theory to extremes " 

" " A pure democracy which places every member of the 
church upon a level and gives him perfect liberty with order." 
Under such a definition of a church as this, its pastor becomes 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 367 

when opposing ministerial associations ; yet with 
some modifications modern Congregationalism 
is essentially that of his school. Church polity, 
however, did not become a topic of general inter- 
est for at least half a century more, nor was it 
formulated anew until the Albany Convention of 
1862 passed "upon the local work and respon- 
sibility of a Congregational Church." 

From the politico-ecclesiastical point of view, 
the legislative measures in the history of Con- 
necticut, during the fifteen years after the colony 
became a state, that are of chief importance are 
the Certificate Laws and Western Land bills. 
In order to properly appreciate their significance 
this summary of the industrial, social, and reli- 
gious life of the Connecticut people during the 
years following the Revolution was necessary. 

only a moderator at its meetings, and every ehurcli is abso- 
lutely independent. It would follow that from its decisions 
there could be no appeal. " Emmons was fond of declaring that 
" Association leads to Consociation ; Consociation leads to 
Presbyterianism ; Presbyterianism leads to Episcopacy ; Epis- 
copacy to Roman Catholicism, and Roman Catholicism is an 
ultimate fact." 

In spite of his teaching as to democracy, Emmons was as 
intolerant of it in the State as he was earnest for it in the 
Church. 



CHAPTER XIII 

CERTIFICATE LAWS AND WESTERN LAND BILLS 

And make the bounds of Freedom wider yet. 

Alfred Tennyson. 

The legal recognition of conscience, the acknow- 
ledgment of fundamental dogmas held in com- 
mon, the gradual approachment of the various 
religious organizations in polity, their common 
interest in education and good government, 
would seem to furnish grounds for such mutual 
esteem that the government would willingly do 
away with the objectionable certificates. On the 
contrary, the old conception of a state church, 
and of its value to the body politic, was so 
strongly intrenched in the hearts of the majority 
of the people that they felt it incumbent upon 
them to require the certificates as guarantees 
that those who were without the Establishment 
were fulfilling their religious duties. Particu- 
larly was this the case when new sects contin- 
ued to increase and radical opinions to spread 
among the masses. And as the government saw 
these apparently destructive ideas permeating 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 369 

tlie people, it endeavored, rather unwisely, to 
hem dissent, in closer bounds, and to favor still 
more Congregationalists and Presbyterian-Con- 
gregationalists. 

The aggressively successful proselytizing by 
the Methodists revived the old dislike of rash ex- 
horters and itinerant preachers, and the old con- 
tempt for an ignorant and unlearned ministry. 
The proselytizing movement had also created a 
suspicion that it was hypocritical, and that it 
was masking a deliberate attempt to undermine 
the Establishment. Outside this Methodist pro- 
paganda there were also all sorts of unorthodox 
ideas that were spreading notions of Universal- 
ism, Arianism, deism, atheism, and freethinking, 
and making many converts. These proselytes 
were frequent among the untutored and irre- 
sponsible members of society who caught at the 
doctrines of greater freedom, and sometimes trans- 
lated them, theoretically at least, into principles 
of greater personal license ; and where they did 
not do this, the authorities felt sure that they 
would soon, and if unrestrained by ecclesiastical 
law, would quickly become lawless, first in reli- 
gious affairs and then, as a consequence, in moral 
ones. Not only in this radical class, but among 
the recognized dissenters and among a minority 
of other religious folk, there was a tendency to 



370 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

question both the authority and the justice of the 
government in its restrictive religious laws, its 
ecclesiastical taxation, and its Sabbath-day legis- 
lation. Particularly was there opposition to the 
fine for absence from public worship on Sunday, 
unless excused by weighty reasons, and to the 
assessment upon every one of a tax for the sup- 
port of some form of recognized public worship, 
even though the tax-payer had no personal inter- 
est or liking for that which he was obliged to 
support. The feehng that such injustice ought 
not to continue was strong among some members 
of the Establishment. They found a powerful 
advocate in Judge Zephaniah Swift of Wind- 
ham, the author of the " System of the Laws of 
the State of Connecticut." 

Judge Swift was a thorough-going Federal- 
ist, but so bitter an opponent of the union of 
Church and State that his enemies, and even 
members of his own party, taunted him with 
being a freethinker, — a serious charge in those 
days. Nevertheless, Judge Swift held the loyalty 
of a county and of one rather tolerant of dis- 
sent. " The Phenix or Windham Herald," 
founded in 1790, though Federal in politics, 
became Judge Swift's organ ; and so acceptable 
were his opinions, taken all in all, -to the com- 
munity, that from 1787 to 1793 it returned this 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 371 

arch-enemy of the Establishment as its deputy 
to the House, and then his congressional district 
honored him with a seat in the national council 
until 1799. He became chief justice in 1806, 
and died in 1819, having lived to see the char- 
ter constitution set aside and Church and State 
divorced. 

The small Anti-Federal party in the state, 
though making but very few converts at this time, 
and though of very little importance politically, 
were the pronounced advocates of a wider suf- 
frage, a larger tolerance, and of radical changes 
in the method of government. The last they 
believed necessary before any great improvement 
in the terms of the franchise or in those of reli- 
gious toleration could be secured. " An Address 
to the Baptists, Quakers, Eogerines, and all 
other denominations of Christians in Connecti- 
cut, freed by law from supporting what has 
been called the ' Established Keligion,' " went 
the rounds of the newspapers urging continued 
resistance to the support of any religious system 
that enforced a tax. The " Address " closed 
with the cheerful prediction that, as their num- 
bers were increasing very rapidly, they might 
hope yet " to carry the vote against those who 
have put on haughty airs and affected to treat 
us as their inferiors." 



372 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Such seething opposition among various classes 
induced the government to enact some special 
legislation ; but it was unfortunately not of a 
conciliatory character. In May, 1791, a law was 
passed varying the old requirement that certifi- 
cates, after being signed by a church officer, 
should be lodged with the Society clerk, to the 
demand that they be signed by two civil officers, 
or, where there was only one, by the justice of 
the peace of the town in which the dissenter 
lived. Considering that the justices were mostly 
Congregationalists, the enactment amounted to 
an intrenchment of the Standing Order at the 
expense of the dissenters. With these officers 
lay full power to pass upon the validity of the 
certificates and upon the honesty of intent on the 
part of the persons presenting them. The certif- 
icates read : — 

We have examined the claim of who says 

he is a Dissenter from the Established Society of 
■ and hath joined himself to a church or Congre- 
gation of the name of ; and that he ordinarily 

attends upon the public worship of such Church or 
Congregation ; and that he contributes his share and 
proportion toward supporting the public worship 
and ministry thereof, do upon examination find that 
the above facts are true. Dated 

Justice of the Peace.-^^^ 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 373 

A veritable doubt, spite, malice, prejudice, or 
mistaken zeal, might determine the granting of 
the certificate to the dissenter. 

The authorities defended this measure upon 
the ground that it was the civil effect of preach- 
ing that gives the civil magistrate jurisdiction. 
" The law,'' they said, "has nothing to do with 
conscience and principles^''' ^^ They further de- 
clared that there were persons who were taking 
undue advantage of the certificate exemptions, 
and that there were good reasons to doubt the 
validity of many of the certificates. 

This Certificate Act roused the dissenters 
tliroughout the state. " In public society meet- 
ings and in speaking universal abroad, sensible 
that their numbers though scattered were large," 
they strove to create a sentiment that should 
send to the next legislature a " body of repre- 
sentatives who would remember their petition 
and see that equal religious liberty should be 
established." 

In regard to the certificates, a writer in the 
" Courant " exclaims : — 

It is sometimes said that the giving of a certifi- 
cate once a year or once in a man's life is but a trifle, 
and none but the obstinate will refuse it as none but 
the covetous desire it. True it is but a trifle — ten 
times as much would be but a trifle if it was right. 



374 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

If it must be done, let them who plead for it do the 
little trifle ; they have no scruples of conscience about 
it. . . . The certificate law is as much worse than 
the tax on tea as religious fetters are worse than 
civil."* 

The Kev. John Leland's " The Eights of Con- 
science inalienable ; therefore Religious Opinions 
not cognizable by Law ; Or The High flying 
Churchman, stript of his legal Robe appears a 
yaho " was a powerful arraignment of the gov- 
ernment and defense of the right of all to 
worship as conscience bade them. Leland had 
recently come from Virginia and settled in New 
London. In the southern state he had been one 
of the most influential among the Baptist minis- 
ters and a great power in politics. In Virginia 
he had seen the separation of Church and State 
in 1785, and had witnessed the benefits follow- 
ing that policy. After the publication of his 
" Rights of Conscience " the question before the 
Connecticut people became one of establishment 
or disestablishment, because Leland, not content 
with showing the falsity of the position that civil 
necessities required an established church, or 
with a logical demonstration of the inalienable 
rights of conscience, proceeded to boldly attack 
the Charter of Charles II as being in no right- 
ful sense the constitution of the state of Con- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 375 

necticut. He maintained that, " Constitution " 
though it was called, it was not such, because it 
had been enforced upon the people by a mere vote 
of the legislature " and was a '' constitution " 
never " assented to further than passive obedi- 
ence and non resistance " by the people at large ; 
a constitution — 

contrary to the known sentiments of a far greater 
part of the States in the Union ; and inconsistent 
with the clear light of liberty, which is spreading 
over the world in meridian splendor, and dissipating 
those antique glooms of tyrannical darkness which 
were ever opposed to free, equal, religious liberty 

among men. 

* 

Leland arraigns a union of Church and State 
that presupposes a need of legislative support for 
religion, which the example of other states has 
proved unnecessary ; and which the experience 
of communities, persisting in such union, has 
shown to be productive of evil, of ignorance, 

« The vote of the Assembly was : " That the ancient form 
of civil government, containing- the charter from Charles the 
Second, King" of England, and adopted by the people of this 
State, shall be and remain the Civil Constitution of the State 
under the sole authority of the people thereof, independent of 
any King, or Prince whatever. And that this Republic is and 
shall forever be and remain a free, sovereign, and independent 
State, by the name of the State of Connecticut." — Revision 
of Acts and Laws, Ed. 1784, p. 1. 



376 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

superstition, persecution, lying and hypocrisy, a 
weakness to the civil state, and a conversion of 
the Bible and of religion to tools of statecraft 
and political trickery. 

Government has no more to do with religious opin- 
ions of men than it has with the principles of mathe- 
matics. . . . Truth disdains the aid of law for its 
defence, ... it will stand upon its own merit. . . . 
Is it just to balance the Establishment against the 
rights guaranteed in the charter, and to enact a law 
which has no saving clause to prevent taxation of Jew, 
Turk, Papist, Deist, Atheist, for the support of a 
ministry in which they would not share and which 
violated their conscience ? ^^^ 

Many Federalists of Judge Swift's type sym- 
pathized with Leland's bold arraignment of the 
Establishment, if not with his view of the uncon- 
stitutionality of the charter government. These 
men repudiated the new certificate law. 

The authorities felt that they had gone too 
far, and in October, 1791, after an existence of 
only six months, they repealed the certificate law 
by one hundred and five yeas to fifty-seven nays. 
The new law that was substituted permitted each 
dissenter to write his own certificate, release, or 
" sign-off," as the papers were colloquially called, 
and required him to file it with the clerk of the 
Established Society wherein he dwelt.^^^ This 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 377 

favor was not so great a privilege as it seemed. 
It bore hard upon the dissenters in two ways. It 
created " Neuters," people who wished to be re- 
lieved from the ecclesiastical taxes, but who were 
too indifferent to the principles and welfare of the 
churches to which they allied themselves to faith- 
fully support them. For their churches to com- 
plain of such persons to the authorities would 
only give the latter reasons for enforcing the 
laws for the support of the Establishment. Then 
again, the new certificate law did not relieve the 
dissenters who lived too far from their churches 
to ordinarily attend them from petty fines and 
from court wrangles as to the justice of them, for 
with the judges lay the determination of what the 
words " far " and " near" and " ordinarily do at- 
tend " in the laws meant.'^ The important ques- 
tion of how many absences from church would 
prevent a man from claiming that he was a regu- 
lar attendant was thus left in the hands of judges, 
who were for the most part prejudiced or partial. 
Many amusing and exasperating legal quibbles 
occurred in the courts between judges, who were 

" " Courts and juries had usually been composed of what was 
considered the standing church, and they had frequently prac- 
ticed such quibbles and finesse with respect to the forms of 
certificates and the nature of dissenting- congregations as to 
defeat the benevolent intentions of the law." — Swift's System 
of Laws J pp. 146, 147. 



378 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

determined to sentence for neglect of public wor- 
ship, and defendants, who were equally positive 
of their rights. Many dissenters attempted later 
to ridicule the law out of existence by substitut- 
ing for the formal — 

I certify that I differ in sentiment from the wor- 
ship and ministry in the ecclesiastical society of 



in the town of constituted by law within certain 

local bounds, and have chosen to join myself to the 
(Insert here the name of society you have joined) in 

the town of . 

Dated at this day of A. d. 

declarations, undignified in wording and some- 
times written in doggerel rhyme. While grant- 
ing the new certificate law, the Assembly were 
careful to pass a minor ecclesiastical statute 
enforcing a fine of from six to twelve shillings 
upon all who should neglect to observe all public 
fasts and thanksgivings. ^^^ This law at times 
proved unsatisfactory to the Episcopalians, for 
the Congregational fasts and feasts were ap- 
pointed by the authorities, who naturally did not 
consider the Churchman's feeling when called 
upon to celebrate a feast or thanksgiving during 
an Episcopalian season of fasting, or to observe 
a public fast, to go in sackcloth, upon an anniver- 
sary that should be marked by joy and praise. 
In 1792, the year following the attempt to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 379 

remodel the certificate laws, certain legislative 
measures with reference to Yale College fed the 
discontent among the dissenting sects. For some 
years there had been an increasing dissatisfac- 
tion with the management of the college. It 
culminated in 1792 in the reorganization of the 
governing board, to which were added eight 
civilians, including the governor, lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, and the six senior councilors or state sen- 
ators. At the same time, and in consideration of 
the admission of laymen to the board, $40,000 
was given to the college." This money was a part 
of the taxes which had been collected to meet the 
expenses of the Revolutionary war, and which 
were in the state treasury when the United States 
government offered to refund the state for such 
expense. It was granted to the college on con- 
dition that she should invest it in the new United 
States bonds, and that half the profits of the in- 
vestment should be at the disposal of the state. 
This arrangement relieved the crippled finances 
of the college and gratified many of its friends. 
But there were many who regarded the measure 
as out-and-out favoritism to a Congregational 
college, and who put no faith in the proposed 
half-sharing of profits. They maintained that 

« Yale received in all $40,629.80. In 1871, six alumni re- 
placed the six senior councilors. 



380 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

eventually the college would get the whole ben- 
efit of the money that had been collected for 
other purposes, and from many persons who 
could derive no benefit from such a disposal of 
it. These prophets were not far wrong, for after 
Yale had paid into the state treasury a little 
more than f 13,000 she was relieved from further 
payments by a repeal, in 1796, of the conditional 
clause of the grant. 

This favoritism to Yale was not the only legis- 
lation to anger the dissenters, and especially the 
Baptists. Another measure, mooted at the same 
time as the certificate acts and the special grant 
to the college, was accepted as a further mark 
of the government's determination to ignore the 
rights of dissenters. In 1785-86 the Assembly 
had granted lands for the support of the Gospel 
ministry, for schools, and to the first minister 
to settle in each township of the Western Ke- 
serve. This act, as has been shown, was con- 
sidered to unduly favor the Presbyterians. But 
little had come of this legislation beyond the 
survey of the land and the opening of a land 
office there for its sale. Five years later, in 
1791, even though no part of the tract had been 
sold, the Assembly introduced a new bill appro- 
priating the anticipated proceeds from the sale 
of the land to the several ecclesiastical societies 



LIBEKTY IN CONNECTICUT 381 

as a fund with wMch to pay their ministers so 
as to enahle them to do away with the tax for sala- 
ries. But the excitement roused by the first cer- 
tificate law — of 1791 — was so great that it was 
deemed prudent to continue this Western Land 
bill over to the next session of the legislature, 
and there it was lost. The session of May, 1792, 
contented itself with only such legislation in re- 
gard to the Western Keserve as that by which 
it granted the " Fire Lands," so called, a grant 
of 500,000 acres as indemnity to the citizens of 
New London, Groton, Fairfield, Norwalk, and 
Danbury, for the destruction of their property in 
the burning of their towns by British troops. 

As the lands of the Western Reserve did not 
sell well," the Assembly, in 1793, appointed a 
committee to dispose of the tract to the highest 
bidder if the amount offered should be duly guar- 
anteed with interest ; principal and interest pay- 
able to the state within four or six years, whether 
paid in lump sum on demand, or by installments. 
The sale was widely advertised both within and 
without the state. It was now calculated that the 
amount realized from the sale of the lands would 
be a sum yielding an annual interest of 160,000, 
or an average of $600 to a town, beside a bonus 

<^ So far the highest bid for the tract of land had been 
$350,000. 



382 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to Yale of 18000. Therefore, the Assembly, in 
October, 1793, voted that — 

moneys arising from the sale of the territory be- 
longing to the State, lying west of the state of Penn- 
sylvania, be, and the same is hereby established a 
perpetual fund, the interest whereof is granted, and 
shall be appropriated to the use and benefit of the 
several ecclesiastical societies, churches, congregations 
of all denominations in this State, to be by them 
appHed to the support of their respective ministers or 
preachers of the Gospel, and schools of education, 
under such rules and regulations as shall be adopted 
by this or some future session of the General As- 
sembly. ^^^ 

An earlier bill had been proposed, discussed, 
and tabled. This act was originally a resolution 
framed by a large committee whose members 
represented both the friends and opponents of 
the proposal for the immediate sale of the lands. 
When the vote passed, it was by eighty-three 
yeas to seventy nays in the House and by a large 
and favorable majority in the Council. 

One fault that the dissenters found with the 
law was that, under the rules and regulations 
adopted by the Assembly, they believed that the 
alternative which the law allowed of voting the 
money to the ministerial fund, or to the school, 
would work to their disadvantage. Where there 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 383 

were few dissenters, the Presbyterian vote would 
carry the money over to the minister's use, and 
where there were many, the same vote would be 
sufficient, if thrown, as it probably would be, to 
direct the money to the school appropriation. It 
would follow that the dissenters might never 
have the use of the money for the support of 
their own worship. 

The Baptists voiced the general opposition 
among the dissenters, — an opposition so strong 
that it appealed to some of the conservatives as 
sufficient reason in itself to condemn the law. 
" A Friend to Society " wrote to the " Hartford 
Courant" that — 

if a religion whose principles are universal love and 
harmony is to be supported and promoted by a means 
which wiU blow up the sparks of faction and party 
strife into a violent flame, it is a new way of promot- 
ing religion. Much better would it be for the State 
of Connecticut that their Western Lands should be 
sunk by an earthquake and form part of the adjoin- 
ing lake than that they should be transplanted hither 
for a bone of contention. 

Apart from sectarian interests, the law met 
with hostility. There were those who thought 
that the money ought to be applied at once to 
the remaining indebtedness of the state, rather 
than for it to wait for another installment on 



384 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the Revolutionary debt that was still due from 
the national government. There were more who 
thought that the money ought to go for the ex- 
penses of government, or for direct advantages, 
such as the repair of bridges and highways. But 
the expenses of government were light,^ and, as 

« The annual expenses were estimated to be approximately 
$90,000. In Advice to Connecticut Folks, 1786, occurs the fol- 
lowing estimate : — 

Necessary Unneces'y 



Governor's salary, 


£300 


£300 




Lieutenant-Governor's, 


100 


100 




Upper House attendance and travel 60 days at 






£10 per day. 


600 


600 




Lower House attendance and travel 170 mem 


- 






bers at 65. a day, 60 days. 


3,060 


1,530 


£1,530 


Five Judges of the Superior Court at 24s. 1 


El 






day, suppose 150 days, 


900 


900 




Forty Judges of Inferior Court at 9s. a day 


, 






suppose 40 days, 


720 


720 




Six thousand actions in the year, the legal ex 


- 






penses of each, suppose £3, 


18,000 


1,000 


17,000 


Gratuities to 120 lawyers, suppose £50 each. 


6,000 


1,000 


5,000 


Two hundred clergjrmen at £100 each, 


20,000 


20,000 




Five hundred schools at £20 a year. 


10,000 


10,000 




Support of poor, 


10,000 


10,000 




Bridges and other town expenses. 


10,000 


10,000 




Contingencies and articles not enumerated, 


10,000 


10,000 





Total, £89,680 £66,150 £23,530 

As a g-limpse at society, it may be added that the Advice 
itself is an energetic and statistical condemnation of the pre- 
valent use of " Rum," estimated at £90,000 or " ninety-nine 
hundredths unnecessary expense " in living-. " Deny it if you 
can, good folks. Now say not a word about taxes, Judges, 
lawyers, courts and women's extravagances. Your government, 
your courts, your lawyers, your clergymen, your schools and 
your poor, do not all cost you so much as one paltry article 
which does you little or no good but is as destructive of your 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 385 

a rule, the people were willing to keep the high- 
ways in repair. There was still another party 
who contended that the money should go for 
schools, both because they were needed in larger 
numbers, and because they ought to be able 
to pay larger salaries and not ones so small as to 
tempt only the farmer lad, or the ambitious stu- 
dent, to keep a country school for a few months 
in winter, or a somewhat similarly equipped 
woman to teach in summer. And there was yet 
another party who were convinced that the money 
should go to the support of the ministry, for 
they believed that morality could be taught only 
by religion, and that the people were losing in- 
terest in the latter because of the inferiority of 
the preachers whom the small salaries and inse- 
cure support kept in the field. i^^ 

While this discussion of certificate laws, of 
grants to Yale, and of grants of land and money 
to the ecclesiastical societies had been constantly 
before the public, there had also been present a 
minor grievance due to the Assembly's interest 

lives as fire and brimstone." — Noah Webster's Collection of 
Essays, pp. 137-139. 

The evil was beginning to be recognized in all its danger. 
Here and there voluntary temperance clubs were beginning to 
be formed among the better classes, but it was a time when 
hardly a contract was closed without a stipulation of a certain 
quantity of rum for each workman. 



386 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

in the missionary work that the General Associ- 
ation had extended to include parts of Vermont, 
western New York, Pennsylvania, and the out- 
lying settlements in Ohio. In the western field 
the missionaries sent by Connecticut frequently 
met those sent out by the Presbyterian General 
Assembly. Drawn together by their interests in 
these missions in 1794, the practice was begun 
of having three delegates from the General As- 
sociation meet with the Presbyterian General 
Assembly in their annual convention, and three 
delegates from the General Assembly take their 
seats in the yearly convocation of the General 
Association of Connecticut. So long as the Con- 
necticut churches were strongly Presbyterian in 
sentiment, there was no clashing of interests 
among the workers in the mission field. Natu- 
rally, Connecticut wanted to do her full share of 
missionary work ; and feeling the need of more 
money for the purpose, the General Association, 
in 1792, appealed to the legislature for permis- 
sion to take up an annual collection for three 
years. The Association hesitated to take up such 
a collection in all the churches, dissenting or 
Established, without such permission. The Bap- 
tists expressed their indignation at the wording 
of Governor Huntington's proclamation, "that 
there be a contribution taken up in every con- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 387 

gregation for the support of the Presbyterian 
Missions in the western territory." More than 
that, they refused to contribute, on the ground 
that if the collection had been " recommended '' 
they would gladly have helped a Christian cause, 
but that it was inexpedient to yield to a demand 
that all societies should contribute to the sup- 
port of missions that were entirely under the 
control of one religious body. Furthermore, with 
reference to the appropriation of money from 
the Western Lands, they would join with other 
dissenters in opposing it, on the ground that, in 
order to obtain their share of the money, they 
would have to admit their inferiority through the 
showing of the compulsory certificates. More- 
over, even the scant favor secured through these 
was in danger from the continual favoritism of 
the legislature, with its treasury open at all times 
to its Congregational college, and with its enact- 
ments in favor of the Established Churches. 

At the May session of the Assembly, 1794, 
the Baptists from all over the state thronged the 
steps of the capitol at Hartford, angered almost 
to the point of precipitating civil war. There 
John Leland addressed them, urging the neces- 
sity of government ; the power of constitutional 
reform ; arguing for rights of conscience, citing 
both European and colonial history to prove 



388 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

their reasonableness and their value to the body 
politic ; and setting forth Connecticut's depar- 
ture from the glorious freedom mapped out by 
her founders. He declared to that great and 
angry crowd : — 

Government is a necessary evil and so a chosen 
good. Its business is to preserve the life, liberty and 
property of the many units that form the body pol- 
itic. . . . When a constitution of government is 
formed, it should be simple and explicit ; the powers 
that are vested in, and work to be performed by each 
department should be defined with the utmost per- 
spicuity ; and this constitution should be attended 
to as scrupulously by men in office as the Bible 
should be by all religionists. . . . Let the people 
first be convinced of the deficiency of the constitu- 
tion, and remove the defects thereof, and then, those 
in office can change the administration upon consti- 
tutional grounds. 

[The right to worship] God according to the dic- 
tates of conscience, without being prohibited, directed 
or controlled therein by human law, either in time, 
place or manner, cannot be surrendered up to the 
general government for an equivalent.^^ 

Had not Governor Haynes said to Roger 
Williams, " The Most High God hath provided 
and cut out this part of the world for a refuge 
and receptacle for all sorts of consciences ? " 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 389 

How had not Connecticut fallen? How passed 
her ancient glory, how ignored her charter's 
rights ? How firm a grip upon her had that incu- 
bus of her own raising, the pernicious union of 
Church and State ? Break that, as elsewhere it 
had been broken, and then as freemen demand a 
constitution guaranteeing both civil and religious 
liberty. 

The result of the widespread hostility was the 
attempt at the May session of 1794 to repeal 
the offensive law. The Lower House did repeal 
it, after a lively debate, by a vote of 109 yeas 
to 58 nays, but the Council, or Upper House, 
where the conservatives were intrenched, refused 
to pass the bill. However, they were induced to 
pass a resolution suspending the sale of the 
lands. The debate in the House was published 
verbatim in the " Hartford Gazette " of May 19, 
1794, and was copied by the papers throughout 
the state. In the following October a bill was 
passed by the Council, but continued over by 
the House and ordered to be printed in all the 
papers, that the people might have opportunity 
to consider it before it should come up to be 
passed upon by their representatives in the May 
session of 1795.^^^ The terms of the bill were 
that the principal sum of money received from 
the sale of the Western Lands should be appor- 



390 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

tioned among the several school societies accord- 
ing to the list of polls and rateable estates, and 
that the interest arising from the money so 
divided should be appropriated to the support of 
schools that were kept according to the law, or 
to the support of the public worship of God and 
the Christian ministry, " as the majority of the 
legal voters should annually determine." ^^^ 

The proposed law was subjected to public 
scrutiny of aU sorts. It was agitated in town 
meetings, and the discussions for and against it 
were noticed in the newspapers, where much space 
was given to its consideration. Ministers made 
it the subject of their sermons. Dr. Dwight dis- 
coursed upon the subject in his Thanksgiving 
sermon.19^ When the proposed bill came up be- 
fore the legislature, it encountered considerable 
opposition, but after some modifications it became 
a law. As in school societies the dissenters had 
an equal vote, and in all town affairs were worth 
conciliating, there was more justice in the new 
law than in the old, where the ecclesiastical so- 
ciety was made the unit of division. From 1717 
to 1793 the towns, parishes, and occasionally the 
ecclesiastical societies had charge of the schools.^^* 
But in 1794 school districts were authorized and 
the change to them begun. Such districts could, 
upon the vote of two thirds of all the qualified 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 391 

voters, locate schools, lay taxes to build and re- 
pair them, and appoint a collector to gather such 
rates. The act of May, 1795, appropriating the 
money from the Western Lands to the schools, 
provided also that the school districts should be 
erected into school societies to whom the money 
should be distributed, and by whom the interest 
thereon should be expended ; and that it should 
go "to no other Use or Purpose whatsoever ; 
except in the Case and under the circumstances 
hereafter mentioned." The circumstances here 
referred to were in cases where two thirds of the 
legal voters in a school society meeting, legally 
warned, voted to use the interest money for the 
support of the ministry in that Society, and ap- 
pealed to the General Assembly for permission 
to so use the money. Upon such an expression 
of the wish of voters, the General Assembly was 
empowered to answer in the affirmative. The 
act also repealed that of 1793. The legislature 
appointed another commission for the sale of the 
lands. They were sold in the following October 
for 11,200,000. By this legislation was laid the 
foundation of Connecticut's School Fund. The 
Connecticut Land Company, which had made 
the purchase, petitioned the legislature in 1797 
that Connecticut should surrender her jurisdic- 
tion over the lands to the United States. The 



392 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. IN CONNECTICUT 

state complied. In 1798 the organization of the 
new school societies was perfected, and the con- 
trol of the schools passed entirely into their hands 
until the district system of 1856 was adopted. 

The Western Land bills had resulted in the 
establishment of a public school fund and in its 
just distribution, without reference to sectarian- 
ism, among the people. All the agitation attend- 
ing both the certificate acts and Western Land 
bills had demonstrated the intense opposition of 
the dissenting minority, and that they were be- 
ginning to look to the increase of their numbers 
and the power of the ballot as the only means of 
changing the vexatious laws under which they 
were treated as inferiors. To the Congregation- 
alists, strong both as the Established Church and 
as members of the Federal party, which counted 
many adherents among aU the dissenting sects, 
the possibility that any voting strength could 
be brought against them, adequate to oppose their 
party measures, seemed improbable. Such a pos- 
sibility must be very remote. Yet within twenty 
years, they were to see the downfall of the Fed- 
eral party, of the Established Church, and of 
Connecticut's charter government. 



CHAPTER XIV 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONNECTICUT AT THE 
BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

As well dam up the waters of the Nile with BuUrushes as 
to fetter the steps of Freedom. — L. M. Child. 

Leland's attack upon the constitution of Con- 
necticut during the excitement over the Western 
Land bills called for new tactics on the part of 
the dissenters. Thus far, in all their antagonism 
to the union of Church and State, there had been 
on their part practically no attack upon the con- 
stitution itself. Yet even as early as 1786 the 
Anti-Federalists had proclaimed that the state 
of Connecticut was without a constitution ; that 
the charter government fell with the Declaration 
of Independence ; and that its adoption by the 
legislature as a state constitution was an unwar- 
ranted excess of authority. The Anti-Federalists 
maintained also that many of the charter pro- 
visions were either outgrown or unsuited to the 
needs of the state. But the majority of the dis- 
senters, like the Constitutional Reform party of 
recent date, preferred redress for their griev- 



394 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ances through legislation rather than through 
the uprooting of an ancient and cherished con- 
stitution. Accordingly, it was not until the elec- 
tions of 1804-6 that this question of a new 
constitution could reasonably be made a cam- 
paign issue. But from 1793 the dissenters began 
to lean towards affiliation with the Democratic- 
Republican" party, the successors to the Anti- 
Federal ; yet it was not until toward the close of 
the War of 1812 that the Republican party made 
large gains in Connecticut and the dissenters 
began to feel sure that the dawn of religious 
liberty was at hand. But before that time the 
Republicans made three distinct though abortive 
attempts to secure the electoral power. 

The Anti-Federalists early began to probe for 
weak spots in the constitutional government of 
Connecticut. The Fundamental Orders had given 
four deputies to each of the three original towns, 
and had made the number of deputies from each 
new town proportionate to its population. The 
Charter had limited the deputies to two from 
each town. The Fundamental Orders gave the 
General Court, composed of Governor, Magis- 
trates or Assistants, and Deputies, supreme gov- 

'^ This party, called for short " Republican," stood for the 
principles known as "democratic," — the appellation of the 
party itself since 1828. This was the school of JefiFerson. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 395 

erning power, including, together with that of 
legislation, the granting of levies, the admission 
of freemen, the disposal of public lands, and the 
organization of courts. It had also a general 
supervision over individuals, magistrates, and 
courts, with power to revise decisions and to 
mete out punishments. The Charter of 1662 did 
not materially alter the laws and customs of the 
government as previously established under 
the Fundamental Orders, or the " first written 
constitution." The Charter emphasized the ex- 
ecutive, and began the segregation of the Upper 
House or Council, since by it the " Particular 
Court " of the founders became the Governor's 
Council, serving upon like occasions, but requir- 
ing the presence of at least six magistrates for 
the transaction of business. The Particular 
Court had consisted of the Governor or Deputy- 
Governor, and three Assistants. In emergencies 
occurring during adjournment of the General 
Court, the Particular Court was to serve in 
place of the larger body. After 1647 this spe- 
cial court could consist of two or three magis- 
trates who, in the absence of the Governor or 
Deputy-Governor, chose one of their number to 
act as moderator. After 1662 the formula of 
the General Court "Be it ordered, enacted and 
decreed " was changed to "Be it enacted by the 



396 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Governor and Council and House of Represen- 
tatives in General Court assembled." At the 
regular session of the General Court or General 
Assembly, the Councilors first sat as a separate 
body in 1698. After the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence this Upper House or Council became 
the Senate, and for many years was referred to 
under any one of the three names. 

The power of the General Court — this jum- 
ble of legislative, executive, and judicial — 
worked well so long as the community consisted 
of a few hundred or a few thousand souls with 
little diversity of sentiment or industrial inter- 
est. It was not until the last quarter of the eigh- 
teenth century that the inefficiency of the " first 
written constitution " began to be felt. Then 
there arose the need of a new constitution to 
modify the body of laws and customs that had 
grown up ; to destroy much of the erroneous 
legislation that in effect perverted or nullified 
their original intent ; and to furnish a constitu- 
tional basis for the government of a larger and 
less homogeneous people. Here and there a few 
thoughtful men, irrespective of their church or 
party, were beginning to apprehend the diffi- 
culty of piloting a democratic state under the 
old royal charter. The more prominent among 
them belonged to the Anti-Federal party, and 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 397 

naturally they sought to expose the constitu- 
tional difficulties which they believed impeded 
progress.® 

One of the earliest party tilts grew out of the 
increase of new towns and the unequal develop- 
ment of some of the older ones. Then as now, 
though on a much smaller scale, the unit of town 
representation threatened rotten boroughs and a 
fictitious representation of the will of the major- 
ity as represented by the delegates to the Lower 
House. The state in 1786 had not recovered 
from the .exhaustion due to the Revolutionary 
War, and the support of the many new deputies, 
due to the increase of the towns, was a burden 
which the October legislation of that year at- 
tempted to lighten. With the object of cutting 
down state expenses a bill was introduced into 
the House to refer to the freemen some proposi- 

« There were men of mark among the Anti-Federalist 
leaders, such as William Williams of Lebanon, a signer of the 
Declaration, Gen. James Wadsworth of Durham, and Gen. 
Erastus Woleott of East Windsor, — these three were members 
of the Council ; Dr. Benjamin Gale of Killingworth, Joseph 
Hopkins, Esq., of Waterbury, Col. Peter Bulkley of Col- 
chester, Col. William Worthington of Saybrook, and Capt. 
Abraham Granger of Suffield. At the ratification of the Con- 
stitutution the vote stood 128 to 40. Afterwards for about ten 
years, in the conduct of state politics, there was little friction, 
for in local matters the Anti-Federalists were generally con- 
servatives. 



398 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

tion for reducing the number of their delegates 
and for equalizing representation. Mr. James 
Davenport of Stamford moved to substitute for 
the bill" another in which this reduction should 
be made by the legislature without submitting 
the proposed change to the freemen. This was 
objected to on the ground that a reduction of 
delegates was a constitutional question, " the 
Assembly having no right to alter the represen- 
tation without authority given by their constit- 
uents." The supporters of the bill contended 
with Mr. Davenport that — 

we have no Constitution but the laws of the State. 
The Charter is not the Constitution. By the Revo- 
lution that was abrogated. A law of the State gave 
a subsequent sanction to that which was before of no 
force ; if that law be valid, any alteration made by a 
later act will also be valid ; if not, we have no Con- 
stitution, so defined, as to preclude the Legislature 
from exercising any power necessary for the good of 
the people. 

The bill was carried over to the May session 
of 1787, when it was defeated by sixty-two yeas 
to seventy-five nays, the towns of Hartford, East 

** Two deputies were allowed every town rated at $60,000. 
In 1785 Oliver Ellsworth had prepared a bill limiting' towns of 
^20,000 or under to one deputy. It passed the Senate, hut 
■was defeated in the House. — The Constitution of Connecticut, 
1901, State Series, p. 105. 



LIBERTY m CONNECTICUT 399 

Hartford, Berlin, Stamford and Woodbury favor- 
ing it. A confidential letter of February, 1787, 
from Dr. Gale, the probable author of " Brief, 
decent but free Remarks or Observations on 
Several Laws passed by the Honorable Legisla- 
ture of the State of Connecticut since the year 
1775, by a Friend to his Country," suggested 
that in addition to the reduction of representa- 
tives, laws should be passed forbidding any citi- 
zen to hold, at the same time, more than one 
place of public trust, either civil or military, and 
also requiring an increase in the number of coun- 
cilors, or senators, from the total of twelve to 
three from each county." Dr. Gale believed that 
if these senators should be elected by each county, 
and not upon a general ticket, the change would 
be beneficial.^^^ 

In regard to the senators, the Fundamental 
Orders prescribed that nominations for the mag- 
istrates should be made by the towns through 
their deputies to the fall session of the General 

" In his pamphlet Dr. Gale advises that each town nomi- 
nate one man, and from the nominations in each county, the 
General Assembly elect two, four or six delegates from each 
county to meet and frame a new constitution, since " any legis- 
lature is too numerous a body, and too unskilled in the science 
of government to properly perform such a task" (p. 29). — 
J. Hammond Trumbull, Hist. Notes on the Constitution of 
Conn., p. 17, and Wolcott's Manuscript in Mass. Hist. Soc. Col. 
vol. iv. 



400 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Court, and that the election should take place 
the following spring at the Court of Elections. 
As the life of the colony expanded, modifications 
of this rule were made ; in time, vote by proxy 
took the place of the freeman's presence at the 
Court of Election. After 1689, the Assistants 
to be nominated, twenty in number, were balloted 
for in the fall town meetings. The sealed lists 
were sent to the legislature, where they were 
opened, and the ticket for the spring election 
was made out from the twenty names receiving 
the largest vote. The Court could no longer as 
in earlier times add any new names. Hence, 
the custom grew up of listing nominations, not 
according to popularity, but first according to 
seniority in office, and then according to the num- 
ber of votes received. These lists were published 
in the papers throughout the state. The candi- 
dates for election were presented at the April 
town meetings, where each name was read in 
order and voted upon. A much later enactment 
provided twelve ballots, and forbade any one to 
cast more than twelve, whether for or against a 
candidate or in blank. If a man held any one of 
his slips in reserve for a more satisfactory can- 
didate, he had none for the teller, and thus the 
secrecy of the ballot was almost destroyed. New 
candidates or those not up for reelection, whose 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 401 

names appeared at the foot of the list, whatever 
the number of votes received, were sometimes 
kept waiting years for an election, until those 
above them had died in office or resigned.® For 
instance, Jonathan Ingersoll received 4600 votes 
in nomination in 1792, while the senior coun- 
cilor, William Williams, had only 2000 ; yet 
Williams's name was preferred, and Ingersoll's 
had to wait over another year, when he was 
again nominated and elected, and held his seat 
from 1793 to 1798. An election was a wearisome 
affair, and many men would not stay until the 
voting upon the list was finished, preferring for 
various reasons to cast an early ballot. The 
natural tendency was to support the experienced 
and known, even if indifferently efficient coun- 
cilor, rather than to vote for an untried and 
unfamiliar man whose name would come up later, 
or even for popular men who could not be pro- 
posed until far into the day. As a result the 
party in power felt assured of their continu- 
ance in office. Moreover, proxies for the election 
were returned in April, but the result was not 
announced until the legislature met in May, nor 

** A similar method of election applied to the representa- 
tives in Congress. Eighteen names were voted on in May for 
nomination, of which the seven highest were listed for election 
in September. 



402 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

was there any supervision compelling an honest 
count. Thus it was easy to keep in office Federal 
candidates, and thus the Senate, or Council, cam(w 
to reflect public opinion about twenty years be- 
hind the popular sentiment. Furthermore, the 
clergy of the Establishment would get together 
and talk matters over before the elections, and 
the parish minister would endeavor to direct his 
people's vote according to his opinion of what 
was best for the commonwealth. This ministerial 
influence was not shaken until about 1817. 

There was still another grievance against the 
Council besides that just mentioned. It had come 
to be almost a Privy Council for advice and con- 
sultation. Furthermore it was, until 1807, the 
Supreme Court of the state to which lay appeals 
in all cases, civil or criminal, where errors of law 
had been committed in the trial courts. Its 
twelve members were mostly, if not all, lawyers, 
holding a tremendous power of patronage over 
the members of the Lower House, many of whom 
were also lawyers, eager for preferment ; over the 
courts throughout the state, from which, since 
1792, the old non-professional judges had been 
debarred , and also over the militia, whose offi- 
cers, from the earliest times, had been appointed 
by the General Court. Further, the united action 
of the two houses was necessary to pass or to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 403 

repeal a law, and thus much important legislation 
centred upon a majority of seven in the Council. 

Furthermore, at the opening of the nineteenth 
century, the courts of law also were thought to 
need reorganizing. The judges were declared 
partisan, as they naturally would be under the 
conditions of their appointment. The Republicans 
could not meet the Federals upon an equal footing 
in the state tribunals. They were disparaged in 
their business relations, " were treated as a de- 
graded party, and this treatment was extended to 
all the individuals of the party however worthy 
or respectable ; in fact as the Saxons were treated 
by the Normans and the Irish by the English 
government." ^^^ 

Because of these political conditions, early in 
statehood, there were three schools of politicians ; 
namely, those who approved a constitutional 
convention, expressly called to frame a new con- 
stitution ; those who wished such a convention 
merely to amend the existing charter-constitu- 
tion ; and those, until 1800, predominately in 
the majority, who were convinced that whether 
the state had a constitution or not was a most 
frivolous and baneful question, mooted only by 
" visionary theorists," or by those who were de- 
sirous of a change, no matter how disastrous it 
might be to good government. The conservative 



404 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

party held that, since the charter had been drawn 
according to the tenor of a draft submitted by 
Winthrop and outlining the government accord- 
ing to the Fundamental Orders, framed in 1639 
by the " inhabitants and residents of Hartford, 
Windsor and Wethersfield," the charter was 
not a grant of privileges but an approval asked 
and obtained for a government already existing. 
Consequently, such government as had been 
exercised before and was continued under the 
charter was essentially a creation of the people. 
It therefore needed only the declarative act of 
the legislature to annul those clauses of the 
charter that bound the colony to the crown and 
to continue over into statehood the government 
of the colonial period. Further, granting that 
the separation from Great Britain annulled the 
constitution, the subsequent conduct of the peo- 
ple in assenting to, approving of, and acquies- 
cing in such acts of the legislature, had established 
and rendered those acts valid and binding, and 
had given them all the force and authority of an 
express contract. i^^ Such discussion of consti- 
tutional questions, confined at first to the few, 
spread among the many after Leland's attack 
upon the charter, and were debated with great 
earnestness. Leland's attack gained him, at the 
time, comparatively few adherents, but it brought 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 405 

the question of disestablishment fairly before the 
people, demonstrating to the discontented that 
there was very little hope for larger liberty, for 
greater justice, until the power of legislation, 
granted by the old charter, should be curtailed, 
and the bond between Church and State severed. 
The growth in Connecticut of the Democratic- 
Republican party, outside its following among 
Methodists, Baptists and a few radical thinkers, 
was very slow. The Episcopalians were held in 
much higher esteem by the Federal members of 
the Establishment, or " Standing Order," as they 
were called, than were the other dissenters. Yet 
notwithstanding the wealth and conservatism of 
the sect, they were looked at askance when it 
came to giving them political office, for the old 
dislike to a Churchman stiU lingered in New 
England. Accordingly, they were somewhat dis- 
satisfied at the treatment they received as polit- 
ical allies of the Standing Order, and, in order 
to quiet their incipient discontent, the government 
thought best to occasionally extend some small 
favor to them. So in 1799, the legislature 
granted them a charter for a fund for their bishop 
which they were trying to raise. About the same 
time, Yale first conferred upon an Episcopal 
clergyman the title of doctor of divinity. The 
transfer of the annual fast day to coincide with 



406 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Good Friday was appreciated by the Churchmen. 
The change was first made in 1795, and came 
about through Governor Huntington's friendship 
for Bishop Seabur}^, and because of a desire to 
remove from the public mind a misapprehension, 
arising from the refusal of the Episcopal church 
in New London to comply with President Wash- 
ington's proclamation for a national Thanksgiv- 
ing.*^ From 1797 this change of fast-day became 

" Bishop Seabury's church, St. James of New London, had 
neglected to observe President Washington's proclamation of 
a national thanksgiving on February 19, 1795, which fell in 
Lent. This roused some antagonism, and was made the subject 
of a sharp and rather censorious newspaper attack upon the 
Episcopalians. At the same time a few Federal Congregation- 
alists were further stirred by Bishop Seabury's signature, viz. 
" Samuel, Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island," to a pro- 
clamation that the prelate had issued, urging a contribution in 
behalf of the Algerine captives. This signature was regarded 
as a " pompous expression of priestly pride." Governor Hunt- 
ington was a personal friend of Bishop Seabury. Moreover, 
at this particular time, the congregation to which the Governor 
belonged in Norwich was worshiping in the Episcopal church 
during the rebuilding of their own meeting-house, which had 
been destroyed by fire. The Governor had previously been 
approached with a suggestion that the fasts and feasts of 
the Congregationalists and Episcopalians should be made to 
coincide, or at least that the annual fast day should not be ap- 
pointed for any time between Easter Week and Trinity Sunday, 
and that the public thanksgivings, when occasion required them, 
should, if possible, not be appointed during Lent. In 1795, the 
annual fast day would have fallen upon the Thursday in Holy 
Week. In order to avoid laying any stress upon the sanctity of 
certain days of the week, and because Governor Huntington 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 407 

customary. It removed the long-standing com- 
plaint that Presbyterian days of fasting or rejoi- 
cing frequently occurred during Episcopal feasts 
or fasts. At an earlier period, the ignoring of 
such public proclamations was sometimes made 
the occasion for imposing fines for the benefit of 
the Establishment. 

As has been said, the Eepublican gains were 
greater among the Methodists and Baptists. 
This was partly because not a few among these 
dissenters associated Jefferson's party with his 
efforts towards disestablishment in Virginia in 
1785. Out of Connecticut's population of two 
hundred and fifty thousand, the Republicans 
counted upon recruits from the Methodist body, 
numbering, in 1802, one thousand six hundred 
and fifty-eight, and from the Baptists, approxi- 
mating four thousand six hundred and sixty 

■wished to turn the public mind away from the petty contro- 
versy, he appointed the fast day on Good Friday. In 1796, the 
annual fast fell in the Lenten season. In 1797, in order to avoid 
having the fast interfere with the regular sessions of the 
County Courts, and at the same time to avoid its falling in 
Easter week. Governor Trumbull appointed it again on Good 
Friday. The arrangement was accepted with satisfaction by 
the Episcopalians and with no objections from the Congrega- 
tionalists, and thereafter it became the custom. (Bishop Sea- 
bury had been elected to the bishopric of Rhode Island in 
1790.) — William DeLoss Love, Jr., Fasts and Thanksgivings 
of New England, pp. 346-361. 



408 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

members. In 1798-1800 the division of the 
Federalists over national issues strengthened 
the Republicans in Connecticut, as they were the 
successors to the Anti-Federalists, those " vision- 
ary theorists " of 1786. The new Democratic- 
Republican party received further additions to 
their ranks through the opposition in Connecticut 
to the Federal and obnoxious " Stand-up Law " of 
1801. This law, which required a man to stand 
when voting for the nomination of senators, 
" was made to catch the secret vote of the Re- 
publicans," ^^^ and revealed at once the opposition 
of every dissenter, debtor, employee, or of any 
one who had cause to fear injury to himself if 
he gave an honest vote. It was passed by a com- 
pact and reunited body of Federalists whose 
boast was that no division upon national ques- 
tions could affect their unity and strength in the 
Land of Steady Habits. , 

The Republican-Democratic party in the state 
would have gained recruits more rapidly had 
it not been for its attitude as a national party 
toward France. To appreciate the situation in 
Connecticut, one must consider, first of all, the 
influence of the French Revolution. One must 
realize the intense interest, the mingled exul- 
tation and terror with which conservatives who, 
though they might differ in their religious pre- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 409 

ferences, were yet the rank and file of the state, 
watched its varying aspects from its outbreak in 
1789 on through the years of its earliest experi- 
ments in statecraft, of its exaggerated exploita- 
tion of " liberty, equality, and fraternity," and 
of its casting off of all religious bonds and tram- 
mels. As the Federal party lost its sympathy 
with the French cause the attitude of the nation 
changed. The consolidated factions of the Anti- 
Federalists, however, increased their ardor for 
the French republic, and took from 1792 the 
name Democratic-Republican. They carried their 
keen sympathy even to expressing their French 
sentiments by their dress and manners. The 
change in the national attitude was reflected in 
Connecticut by the whole-hearted antipathy of 
large numbers of her people to what they con- 
sidered " radicalism of the most destructive 
character." Enghsh Arianism and Arminianism, 
with which the Edwar deans had waged war, 
were nothing compared to the influx of French 
infidelity and atheism which appeared to be 
sweeping over the land. Books formerly guarded 
by the clergy were on sale everywhere. They 
found among the masses many like Aaron Burr, 
who, during his period of study with Dr. Bel- 
lamy, had preferred the logic of the printed 
books upon the shelves to that of the master 



410 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

who placed them there. Dr. Bellamy proposed 
to confute the pernicious arguments of these 
books, bringing them one by one before his select 
body of students, so that they should be able to 
guide their future parishioners when the insidious 
poison of these dangerous authors, these "fol- 
lowers of Satan," should force its way among 
them. 

All sects attempted to oppose such an influx 
of irreligion. All but the Episcopalians fell back 
upon revivals as their chief means. In these 
revivals the Methodists and Congregationalists 
were perhaps the most successful in securing 
converts. The policy of the Episcopal church 
did not favor this phase of religious life. It felt 
that its whole attitude was a protest against ex- 
aggerated liberty, or license, and against all athe- 
istical ideas. During the revivals the Baptists, 
also, added largely to their numbers. The Metho- 
dists, however, brought to their revival meetings 
the peculiar strength of fervent proselytes to a 
new faith; of one rapidly becoming popular, 
appealing strongly to the emotions, and having 
a touch of martyrdom still clinging to its pro- 
fession. Among those Federalists who were also 
Congregationalists, the French Revolution was 
believed to be the " result of a combination long 
since formed in Europe by infidels and atheists 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 411 

to root out and effectually destroy religion and 
civil government." Holding this opinion ; see- 
ing the Baptists and Methodists increasing in 
importance, both in the nation and in the state ; 
vratching the continual increase of the unortho- 
dox and of the freethinker, and perceiving the 
growing loss of confidence in the Federal party 
both in the nation and the state, the Standing 
Order felt itself face to face with imminent peril. 
It scented danger to itself and to the existence of 
the commonwealth. But it sadly lacked a great 
leader, until the year 1795, when it found one 
in the recently elected president of Yale, the 
Eev. Timothy D wight. He was a grandson of 
Jonathan Edwards, and was a man of amazing 
energy, of varied training, and of great personal 
charm. 

In his experience Dr. Dwight counted a 
college education, a theological training under 
Jonathan Edwards, Jr., a tutorship at Yale, a 
chaplaincy among the rough soldiers of the war 
of the Revolution, home -life on his father's farm 
at Northampton, where the men in the field vied 
with each other " to rake or hoe beside Timothy " 
in order to hear him talk. In political life Dr. 
Dwight had served an apprenticeship in the 
General Court of Massachusetts, where he sat as 
deputy from Northampton. He had had experi- 



412 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ence as a preacher in several small towns, and 
as pastor at Greenfield Hill, a part of Fairfield. 
There he had added to his income by establishing 
the Greenfield Academy for both sexes. Upon 
accepting the presidency of Yale he became also 
professor of theology, and in addition he took 
under his special care the courses in rhetoric and 
oratory. These last two, together with literature, 
had, he thought, been entirely too much neg- 
lected." His coming was a forecast of the man 
of the nineteenth century. ^^^ Dr. Stiles had been 
a fine type of the eighteenth. Dr. D wight was 
a man of less acquirements in languages, but 
he was a more accurate scholar, of broader in- 
telligence, and with a mind well stocked and 
ready. He had a pleasing power of expression, 
was tactful, and could readily adapt himself to 
• men and circumstances. It was he who was 
to give Yale its initial movement from college to 
university. He himself was to become a cele- 
brated teacher and theologian. He was to be one 
of the founders of the New England school, whose 
principles Dr. Taylor, in 1827, was to make 

" Early in his career he had written a versification of the 
Psalms, in 1788 his Conquest of Canaan^ and later Triumph of 
Infidelity. President Dwight taught the seniors rhetoric, logic, 
ethics, and metaphysics, and the graduate students in theology. 
In 1805 he was appointed to the professorship of the latter 
study. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 413 

known under the name of the New Haven Theo- 
logy." In his own day Dr. Dwight was equally 
celebrated as a power both in religion and poli- 
tics. " Pope Dwight " his enemies termed him, 
and they nicknamed his ministerial following his 
"bishops," while they dubbed the Council or 
Senators "his Twelve Cardinals." 

Outside his college duties, and as a part of his 
care for its spiritual welfare. President Dwight's 
immediate purpose was to combine all forces that 
could be used to stem the dangerous currents 
rushing against the bulwarks of Church and 
State. He had early favored the drawing to- 
gether of Congregational and Presbyterian 
bodies. He had discerned, as early as 1792, a 
stirring of new life in the religious world, the 
breaking down of the apathy of half a century 
that had been indicated by revivals in places far 
scattered, not only throughout New England but 
in other states. Towns in Massachusetts, with 
East Haddam and Lyme in Connecticut, had been 
roused as early as the year named. That element 
of personal experience which had been so marked 
a feature of the Great Awakening reappeared, 
but without that excessive emotionalism ^ which 

^ Dr. Dwight's Theology Explained was not published until 
1818, after his death, and his Travels not until 1821-22. 

^ Except among the backwoodsmen of Kentucky in 1799- 

1803. 



414 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

characterized the earlier revivaL Nor was there 
any such pronounced leadership as then. There 
was the same conviction of sinfulness, the peace 
after its acknowledgment, and the joyous satis- 
faction in the determination to lead an upright 
life, seeking God's grace and will. Recognition 
of this spiritual awakening had in some measure 
entered into the proposed disposal of the money 
from the Western Lands, as it had also in the 
discussion of the joint missionary work of 1791- 
1794, and again in 1797-98,200 when the General 
Association of Connecticut was incorporated as 
the Connecticut Missionary Society.^ In all of 
these movements President Dwight had taken an 
active part. Upon entering the presidency of Yale 
he at once began a series of sermons, which he 
delivered Sunday mornings, and which were so 
arranged that in each four years the course was 
complete. These lectures were his " Theology Ex- 
plained and Defended," first published in 1818. 
President Dwight, with the leading Presbyterian 
or Congregational ministers, together with the 
Methodist and Baptist clergy, continued to favor 
the revival movement. This reached its height 
in 1807. From beginning to end it lasted nearly 

" The Society was granted a charter in 1802. In 1797 inter- 
est in the missions was intensified by the free distribution of 
seventeen hundred copies of the report of missionary work in 
England and America. 



LIBEETY IN CONNECTICUT 415 

a quarter of a century, and was punctuated by 
the revival years of 1798, 1800, and 1802, that 
were especially fruitful of conversions in Con- 
necticut. That of 1802 attracted large numbers 
of the college students. The success of the re- 
vivals was marked by increasing austerities, such 
as the denunciation of amusements, both public 
and private, and the revival of dead-letter laws 
for the more strict observance of Sunday. Trav- 
eling or driving was prohibited without a pass 
signed by a justice of the peace. Travelers were 
held up over " holy time." Attempts were made 
to prevent the young people from gathering in 
companies on Sunday evenings after the Sabbath 
was legally over. Too much hilarity, though in- 
nocent, was condemned. Such restrictions were 
extremely distasteful to a large minority in the 
state, and seemed to many citizens only re- 
peated proofs of how closely the government and 
the Presbyterian-Congregational church were 
banded together. Accordingly the Eepublicans 
began to think it was time to test the strength 
of such a platform as they could put forth while 
making a bid for the whole dissenting vote. 
The election of Adams and Jefferson ^ in 1797 

« The Rev. Jedidiah Champion of Litchfield, an ardent Fed- 
eralist, on the Sunday following- the news of the election of 
Adams and Jefferson, prayed fervently for the president-elect, 



416 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

was a spur to both parties, lending hope to the 
scattered Republicans, and prodding the recently 
over-confident Federalists. In March, 1798, the 
whole nation was roused almost to forgetfulness 
of party lines by the anger created by the publi- 
cation of the " X Y Z Papers." A few months 
later the Federal party, through its Alien and 
Sedition laws, had lost its renewed hold upon the 
nation. Connecticut denounced the Virginia and 
Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99, and was to 
all appearances stanchly Federal. But her lead- 
ers were looking for another presidential candi- 
date than Adams, while the Republicans, elate 
with the anticipated national victory in 1800, 
were making preparations to catch any and every 
dissatisfied voter in the state. The scattered 
Republican clubs and committees awoke to new 
activity. As Jefferson kept his party well in 
hand, and let the national dissatisfaction increase 
that he might rush to victory at the presidential 
election of 1800, so the Connecticut Republi- 
cans matured their plans. They did not formally 
organize their party till 1800, first making sure 
of their great leader as the nation's executive, 

closing with the words, " Lord ! wilt Thou bestow upon the 
Vice-President a double portion of Thy grace, /"or Thou knowest 
he needs ity This was mild, for JefEerson was considered by 
the New England clergy to be almost the equal of Napoleon, 
whom one of them named the " Scourge of God." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 417 

and almost of his reelection. Then they began 
to urge the acceptance of their platform upon 
the oppressed Connecticut dissenters, and to taunt 
the Federal Episcopalians with an allegiance that 
as late as 1802 had not been thought of sufficient 
worth to warrant the small favor of a college 
charter for their academy at Cheshire. The Fed- 
eralists attempted to disarm the Episcopal dis- 
satisfaction over the refusal by granting them a 
license for a lottery to raise f 15,000 for the 
bishop's fund. 

The leader of the Republicans in Connecticut 
was Pierpont Edwards, a recently appointed 
United States district judge. He was brother of 
Jonathan Edwards, Jr., for years the pastor 
of the North Church at New Haven, and in 1800 
president of Union College. This Republican 
leader was the maternal uncle of his opponent in 
Federal state politics, President Dwight, and also 
of the Republican Vice-President, Aaron Burr. 
Another nephew of his was Theodore Dwight, the 
brother of Yale's president, who led the Federal 
civilians, and who was editor of the " Hartford 
Courant," the organ of the Connecticut Feder- 
alists. The Hartford "American Mercury" 
voiced the sentiments of the Republicans. The 
latter party throughout the state was formally 
organized in 1800 at a meeting in New Haven, 



418 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the home of Mr. Edwards and of his henchman, 
Abraham Bishop, son of that city's mayor. 

The close personal relationship of the leaders," 
the scorn of the radicals, the abhorrence of the 
conservatives for the principles, opinions, and 
even, in some cases, habits of life of their oppo- 
nents, entered into the strife and vituperation 
of the political campaigns from 1800 to 1806. 
Personalities were unsparing, passion rose high, 
and speeches were bitter. This was particularly 
the case in New Haven, where Abraham Bishop's 
impudent boldness of attack and denunciation 
was exaggerated by his father's position. Samuel 
Bishop, the father, was a man of seventy-seven, 
and old in the service of both Church and State. 
He was senior deacon in the North Church, or 
what was at that time known as the Church of 

" Pierpont Edwards, b. April 8, 1750, graduated at Prince- 
ton, 1768, died April 5, 1826. 

Timothy Dwight, b.May 14, 1752, died January 11, 1817. 

Aaron Burr, b. February 6, 1756, Vice-President 1801-05, 
died September 14, 1836. 

Theodore Dwight, b. December 15, 1754, educated for the law 
under Pierpont Edwards, and practiced it for a time in New 
York city with his cousin, Aaron Burr. He broke the partner- 
ship because of difference in politics, and went to Hartford. He 
became a member of the governor's council, 1809-1815 ; sec- 
retary of the Hartford Convention, 1814. He established the 
Connecticut Mirror in 1809 ; founded and conducted the Albany 
Daily Advertiser^ 1815-16, and the Daily Advocate, New York, 
1816-36. He died June 12, 1846. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 419 

the United White Haven and Fair Haven Soci- 
eties. He was also a justice of the peace, town 
clerk, and mayor of the city. The last office was 
held, according to the charter, during the plea- 
sure of the legislature. Samuel Bishop was also 
chief judge of the court of common pleas for New 
Haven County, and sole judge of probate, annual 
offices which the General Assembly had re-con- 
ferred upon him in 1800 and in 1801. His son 
was a graduate of Yale (1778). He was a law- 
yer of somewhat indifferent practice, and from 
1791 to 1798 clerk of the county court under 
his father, while from 1798 he had been clerk 
of the superior court. Before settling down to 
practice at the bar he had lived abroad, and had 
been caught in the whirl of French thought and 
democratic ideas. He had returned home bearing 
words of recommendation to Washington's secre- 
tary of state from Jefferson's European friends. 
A personal meeting with that party leader had 
added to Bishop's enthusiasm. For some years 
he had lived in Boston, and tried his hand at 
literature. He had returned to New Haven in 
1791, and had thrown himself into politics. 
He purposely exaggerated his opinions. He was 
careless of his unorthodox expressions even to 
the verge of blasphemy. Though himself a be- 
liever in God, he was perhaps what one would 



420 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

probably have termed a little later a Unitarian. 
His enemies exaggerated his exaggerations, — 
and Unitarianism was a crime according to the 
Connecticut statutes.^ 

In his speeches and essays Abraham Bishop 
struck out boldly, with earnestness, logic, shrewd 
wit, and irony, and, as has been said, at times 
with dangerous irreverence, — often with down- 
right impudence when that would serve his pur- 
pose. An illustration of his extreme use of it 
was in 1800, about the time of the organization 
of the Republican party throughout the state. 

He had been honored with the Phi Beta 
Kappa oration, annually delivered on the eve 
of the Yale Commencement, then in September. 
A polished literary effort was expected. He 
broke tradition, courtesy, and every implied ob- 
ligation in the choice of his subject. In August 
he sent to the committee his paper for their 
acceptance or refusal. It was entitled "The 
Extent and Power of Political Delusions," and 
was an out and out campaign document. The 
presidential election was due in November ! Fur- 
ther, Bishop made political capital of the anti- 

« The crimes against relig-ion punishable by law were Blas- 
phemy (by whipping, fine, or imprisonment) ; Atheism, Poly- 
theism, Unitarianism, Apostacy (by loss of employment, 
whether ecclesiastical, civil, or military, for the first offense). 
— Swift's System of Law, ii, 320, 321. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 421 

cipated refusal of his paper, which was not sent 
him until the eleventh hour. The readers of the 
morning paper, wherein the committee offered an 
apology for the change of speakers at the Society's 
meeting to be held that night, were confronted 
by the announcement that the refused address 
would be given to all who cared to listen to it in 
the parlors of the White Haven church that same 
evening, and by the still further notice that 
copies of it were fresh from the printer's hands 
and were ready to be distributed to the remotest 
parts of the state. Needless to state, the Phi 
Beta Kappa audience dwindled away to swell 
the crowd of fifteen hundred, wherein Bishop 
gleefully counted " eight clergymen and many 
ladies." The address met with great favor, and 
the Wallingford Republicans at their celebra- 
tion of March 11, 1801, in honor of the election 
of Jefferson and Burr, asked Mr. Bishop to be 
their orator." 

To top Bishop's insult, — as it was regarded 
by every friend of the Standing Order, — came 

" Oration delivered in Wallingford on the eleventh of March 
1801, before the Bepublicans of the State of Connecticut at the 
General Thanksgiving for the election of Thomas Jefferson to 
the Presidency, and of Aaron Burr to the Vice-Presidency, of 
the United States of America 1801. 

See the appendix to the Oration for an account of the New 
Haven episode. 



422 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

in the following spring Jefferson's displacement 
of Elizur Goodrich, President Adams's appointee 
as collector of the port of New Haven, and the 
substitution of Samuel Bishop. President Jef- 
ferson considered himself at liberty to make this 
change ; and all the more so because President 
Adams had made the appointment as one of his 
last official acts, when he must have known it 
would have been unacceptable to the incoming 
Republican administration. The merchants of 
New Haven immediately united in a petition 
to President Jefferson, in which they declared 
that Samuel Bishop was too old to perform the 
duties of the office, and, moreover, not acquainted 
with accounts. Assuming that his son Abraham 
would assist him, they denounced the latter as 
" entirely destitute of public confidence, so con- 
spicuous for his enmity to commerce and oppo- 
sition to order, so odious to his fellow citizens, 
that we presume his warmest partizans would 
not have hazarded a recommendation of him." 
Notwithstanding this protest the appointment 
was continued, the President pointing out the 
honors bestowed upon the father and the care 
with which he, Jefferson, had investigated the 
case before acting upon it. Reproving the au- 
thorities for so long excluding the Republicans 
entirely from office, Jefferson expressed his 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 423 

regret at finding upon his accession to the presi- 
dency not even a "moderate participation in 
of&ce in the hands of the majority." He further 
stated that when such a situation was in some 
measure relieved he would be only too glad to 
make the question " Is he capable ? Is he hon- 
est ? Is he faithful to the Constitution ? " the 
only tests for obtaining and holding office. Sam- 
uel Bishop died in 1803, and the collector ship 
was then bestowed upon his son, who held it until 
his death in 1829. 

In Connecticut the two political parties pre- 
pared for conflict. The Republicans desired a 
new constitution and disestablishment. The old 
constitutional and religious debates were opened 
and fiercely fought out in pamphlet, press, ser- 
mon, and political oration. Noah Webster re- 
plied to the " E:itent and Power of Political 
Delusion" by "A Rod for the Fool's Back." 
John Leland published his famous Hartford 
speech as "A Blow at the Root, a fashionable 
Fast-Day Sermon," and his " High Flying 
Churchman," as contributions in behalf of civil 
and religious liberty. Abraham Bishop took up 
the latter topic in his " Wallingford Address, 
Proofs of a Conspiracy Against Christianity and 
the Government of the United States," published 
in 1802, as well as in his " Extent and Power of 



424 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Political Delusion" of 1800. A fair type of 
Mr. Bishop's style and treatment is shown in his 
" Connecticut Republicanism," a campaign docu- 
ment, wherein he sets forth his opinion of the 
union of Church and State.^ 

In his campaign document under the title 
"Connecticut Kepublicanism " Bishop declared; 

Christianity has suffered more by the attempts to 
unite church and state than by all the deistical writ- 
ings, yet the men who denounce them are pronounced 
atheists and no proof of their atheism is required but 
their opposition to Federal measures. . . . Church 
and state cannot be better served than by keeping 
them distinct and by placing them where they ought 
to be, above, instead of beneath the control of men 
who care no more for either of them than they can 
turn to their personal benefit. The self-styled friends 
of order have in aU nations been the cause of all 
the convulsions and distresses which have agitated 
the world. . . . The clergyman preaches politics, the 
civilian prates of orthodoxy, and if any man refuse 
to join their coalition they endeavor to hunt him 
down to the tune " The Church is in danger." . . . 
In 1787 this visible intolerance had abated in New 
England ; there was no written law in force that none 
but church-members should be free burgesses : yet 

" " Connecticutensis," or David Daggett, also replied in 
Three Letters to Abraham Bishop. Theodore Dwight's Ora- 
tion at New Haven before the Society of the Cincinnati, July 7, 
1801^ took up the constitutionality of the charter government. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 425 

the avowed charge of Christ's church was in our law- 
books, some nice points of theology were settled in 
our statutes and the common law of church and state 
was in full force. . . . The Trinitarian doctrine is 
established by laws, and the denial of it is placed 
in the rank of felony. Though we have ceased to 
transplant from town to town Quakers, New Lights, 
and Baptists ; yet the dissenters from our prevailing 
denominations are even at this moment praying for 
a repeal of those laws which abridge the rights of 
conscience. 

Break the league of church and state which first 
subjugates your consciences, then treating your un- 
derstanding like galley slaves, robs you of religion 
and civil freedom. . . . Thirty thousand freemen 
are against the union of church and state. Thirty 
thousand more men, deprived of voting because they 
are not rich or learned enough, are ready to join 
them.201 

In his " Wallingford Address," Bishop ex- 
claims " The clerical politician is a useless 
preacher ; the political Christian is a dangerous 
statesman." On the title page of this address 
appeared the epigram, " Our statesmen to the 
Constitution ; our Clergy to the Bible." The 
unfortunately irreverent parallel which Bishop 
drew between the Saviour of the world and the 
leader of the national Republican party, or of 



426 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the democracy or common people, gave to the 
epigram an evil significance not intended, and to 
its author a reputation not wholly deserved. 

David Daggett, a prominent New Haven Fed- 
eralist and lawyer," tried in " Facts are Stubborn 
Things " to refute the charge that the people 
were priest-ridden, the legislature arbitrary and 
tyrannical, the clergy bigots. In the course of 
his argument he gives an account of the recep- 
tion of a Baptist petition which, voicing the 
smouldering discontent that was kept burning 
by the certificate law, had been presented to the 
legislature. Daggett charged the Republicans 
with instituting the custom of holding their party 
meetings in Hartford and New Haven at the time 
of the meeting of the Assembly in those cities, 
and of making the political gathering a means of 
directing what topics should be brought up for 
discussion in the House of Representatives, and 
what discussed in their party organ the " Amer- 
ican Mercury." Daggett accused the Republi- 
cans of purposely choosing subjects of discus- 
sion of an inflammable character, and declared 
that it was in Babcock's paper (so called from 
its editor) that the Baptist petition originated, 
which, circulated through the state, received 
some three thousand signatures, " many of whom 

" Later chief justice. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 427 

doubtless sought the public good." 202 The peti- 
tion was presented for trial in 1802 and a day- 
set for its hearing, upon which Mr. Pierpont 
Edwards and Mr. Gideon Granger were to 
advocate it. The gentlemen, according to Mr. 
Daggett's account, did not appear, and of course 
no trial was held. Instead, the Assembly referred 
it to a committee of eighteen from the two 
houses. Mr. Daggett insisted that " it was 
thoroughly canvassed, and every gentleman pro- 
fessed himself entirely satisfied that there was no 
ground of complaint which the Legislature could 
remove, except John T. Peters, Esq., who de- 
clared that nothing short of an entire repeal of 
the law for the support of religion would accord 
with his idea." 

The truth of the matter was that the committee 
were chiefly Federalists. Mr. Peters was a Re- 
publican. In their answer to the petition, the 
committee assumed that it " was an equitable 
principle, that every member of the society should, 
in some way, contribute to the support of reli- 
gious institutions and so the complaint of those 
who declined to support any such institution was 
invalid." If there was ground for complaint 
because of sequestration of property for the ben- 
efit of Presbyterians only, the committee failed 
to find any such cause, and if such existed, the 



428 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

proper channel of appeal was through the courts. 
All other complaints in the petition were con- 
sidered to be answered bj the assumption that 
the legislature had the right, on the ground of 
utility, to compel contributions for the support 
of religion, schools, and courts, whether or not 
every individual taxpayer had need of them. The 
next year, 1803, the petition gained a hearing, 
but that was all. It continued to be presented 
at every session of the Assembly, and was first 
heard by both houses in 1815. It was finally with- 
drawn at the session that passed the bill for the 
new constitution of 1818. 

As one of the preliminary steps in the educa- 
tion of the people in Republican principles and 
aims, John Strong of Norwich in 1804 founded 
the " True Republican," thus giving a second 
paper for the dissemination of Republican opin- 
ions. From 1792 the "Phenix or Windham 
Herald " had been dealing telling blows at the 
Establishment and at the courts of law through 
a discussion in its columns carried on by Judge 
Swift, the inveterate foe of the union of Church 
and State, and a lawyer, frank to avow that par- 
tiality existed in the administration of justice. 
Though both the paper and the judge were 
strongly Federal in their politics, they were both 
materially helping the Republican advocates of 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 429 

reform. From the Windham press came, also, a 
republication of " A Review of the Ecclesiastical 
Establishments of Europe," edited by E,. Hunt- 
ington, with special reference to the bearing of its 
arguments upon the conditions existing in Con- 
necticut, where illustration could be found of the 
absurdities and dangers that the book had been 
originally written to expose. In 1803 John Le- 
land, representing forty-two Baptist clergymen, 
twenty licensed exhorters, four thousand commu- 
nicants, and twenty thousand attendants, sent 
out another plea for disestablishment in his " Van 
Tromp lowering his Peak with a Broadside, con- 
taining a Plea for the Baptists of Connecticut." 
In it he urges that thirteen states have already 
granted religious liberty, and that many of 
them have formed newer constitutions since the 
Ke volution. Such should also be the case in 
Connecticut. Moreover, it could readily be 
accomplished at the small cost of five cents per 
man. Such a small sum would pay the expenses 
of a convention to formulate a constitution and 
another to ratify it, while five cents more per 
person would furnish every citizen with a copy of 
the proposed document, so that each could decide 
for himself upon the constitutionality of any 
measure proposed, and would no longer be obliged 
to read pamphlet after pamphlet or column after 



430 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 
column in the newspaper to determine its valid- 

ity.203 

All this was preparatory ; and the first purely 
political note of warning and call to battle for a 
new constitution was sounded by Abraham Bishop 
at Hartford, May 11, 1804, in his "Oration in 
Honor of the Election of President Jefferson 
and the peaceful acquisition of Louisiana." He 
sums up the situation thus : — 

Connecticut has no Constitution. On the day inde- 
pendence was declared, the old charter of Charles II 
became null and void. It was derived from royal 
authority, and went down with royal authority. Then, 
the people ought to have met in convention and framed 
a Constitution. But the General Assembly interposed, 
usurped the rights of the people, and enacted that the 
government provided for in the charter should be 
the civil constitution of the State. Thus all the abuses 
inflicted on us when subjects of a crown, were fastened 
on us anew when we became citizens of a free repub- 
lic. We still live under the old jumble of legislative, 
executive and judicial powers, called a Charter. We 
still suffer from the old restrictions on the right to 
vote ; we are still ruled by the whims of seven men. 
Twelve make the council. Seven form a majority, 
and in the hands of these seven are all powers, legis- 
lative, executive and judicial. Without their leave no 
law can pass ; no law can be repealed. On them more 
than half of the House of the Assembly is dependent 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 431 

for re-appointments as justices, judges, or for promo- 
tion in the militia. By their breath are, each year, 
brought into official life six judges of the Superior 
Court, twenty-eight of the probate, forty of county 
courts, and five hundred and ten justices of the peace, 
and, as often as they please, all the sheriffs. Not 
only do they make laws, but they plead before jus- 
tices of their own appointment, and as a Court of 
Errors interpret the laws of their own making. Is 
this a Constitution ? Is this an instrument of govern- 
ment for freemen ? And who may be freemen ? No 
one who does not have a freehold estate worth seven 
dollars a year, or a personal estate on the tax list of 
one hundred and thirty-four dollars. . . . For these 
evils there is but one remedy, and this remedy we 
demand shall be applied. We demand a constitution 
that shall separate the legislative, executive and judi- 
cial power, extend the freeman's oath to men who 
labor on highways, who serve in the militia, who pay 
small taxes, hut possess no estates.^^^ 

Abraham Bishop threw down the gauntlet, 
and in the following July his party issued a cir- 
cular letter. It emanated from the Republican 
General Committee, of which Pierpont Edwards 
was chairman. It stated "that many very re- 
spectable Republicans are of the opinion that 
it is high time to speak to the citizens of Con- 
necticut plainly and explicitly on the subject of 
forming a constitution ; but this ought not to be 



432 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

done without the approbation of the party." 
A general meeting was proposed to be held in 
New Haven on August 29, 1804. In response, 
ninety-seven towns sent Republican delegates to 
assemble at the state house in New Haven on 
that date. Major William Judd of Farmington 
was chosen chairman. The meeting was held 
with closed doors, and a series of resolutions 
was passed in favor of adopting a new constitu- 
tion. It was declared " the unanimous opinion 
of this meeting that the people of this state are 
at present without a constitution of civil gov- 
ernment," and " that it is expedient to take 
measures preparatory to the formation of the 
Constitution and that a committee be appointed 
to draft an Address to the People of this State 
on that subject." The address reported by this 
committee was printed in New Haven on a small 
half-sheet with double columns, and ten thou- 
sand copies were ordered distributed through the 
state. 

The issue was fairly before the people. From 
the Federal side, just before the September elec- 
tions, came David Daggett's *^' Count the Cost," 
in which he ably reviewed the Republican mani- 
festo, impugning the motives of the leaders of 
the Republican party, and eloquently urging 
every friend of the Standing Order and every 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 433 

freeman to " count tlie cost " before voting with 
the Republicans for the proposed reform. 

The faU election of 1804 was lost to the Re- 
publicans, for while they made many gains here 
and there throughout the state," the immediate 
slight access to the Federal ranks showed that 
the people generally were not yet ready for a 
constitutional change. 

As one result of the defeat at the polls, there 
arose a wider sympathy for the defeated party. 
When the legislature met in October, the Fed- 
eral leaders resolved to administer punishment 
to the defeated Republicans. So strong was the 
popular feeling, and so determined the attitude 
of the legislature, that it summoned before it 
all five of the justices of the peace ^ who had 
attended the New Haven convention of August 
29, to show why they did not deserve to be de- 
prived of their commissions. Their oath of office 
ran " to be true and faithful to the Governor 
and Company of this state, and the Constitution 
and government thereof." What right, the Fed- 
erals asked, had they to attack a constitution 
they had sworn to uphold ? At the same time, 

•^ Windham County was steadily Republican after this elec- 
tion. 

^ Major William Judd of Farming-ton, Jabez H. Tomlinson 
of Stratford, Augur Judson of Huntington, Hezekiah Goodrich 
of Chatham, and Nathaniel Manning of Windham. 



434 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

several of the militia, known to be of Eepubli- 
can sympathies, were also deposed or superseded. 
Mr. Pierpont Edwards was allowed to make 
the defense for the justices. Mr. Daggett ap- 
peared for the state. Reviewing the proceedings 
of the Republican meeting, Mr. Daggett traced 
the history of the government of the colony 
and state in order to demonstrate that the char- 
ter was peculiarly a constitution of the people, 
" made hy the people and in a sense not appli- 
cable to any other people." He declared the 
New Haven " address " an outrage upon de- 
cency, and it to be the duty of the Assembly to 
withdraw their commissions from men who ques- 
tioned the existence of the constitution under 
which they held them. The day after the hear- 
ing, a bill to revoke the commissions was passed 
unanimously by the governor and council, and 
by a majority of eleven in the Lower House, the 
vote standing 67 yeas to 56 nays. This attempt 
to stifle public opinion won a general acknow- 
ledgment that the minority were oppressed. 
The feeling of sympathy thus roused was in- 
creased by the death of Major Judd, who had 
been taken ill after his arrival in New Haven. 
His partisans asserted that his death was caused 
by his efforts to save himself and friends, and 
his consequent obligation to appear at the trial 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 435 

when really too iU to be about. The day after 
his death, the Republicans published and dis- 
tributed broadcast his " Address to the people 
of the State of Connecticut on the subject of 
the removal of himself and four other justices 
from office." 

From this time forward the minority thor- 
oughly realized that it was " not a matter of 
talking down but of voting down their oppo- 
nents." Their leaders also understood it. Bishop 
entered the lists, not only against his political 
antagonist David Daggett, but against such men 
as Professor Silliman, Simeon Baldwin, Noah 
Webster, Theodore Dwight, and against the 
clergy, led by President Dwight, Simon Backus, 
Isaac Lewis, John Evans, and a host of sec- 
ondary men who turned their pulpits into lec- 
ture desks and the public fasts and feasts into 
electioneering occasions. Their general plea was 
that religion preserved the morals of the people, 
and consequently their civil prosperity, and 
hence the need for state support. Occasionally 
one would insist that it was a matter of con- 
science with the Presbyterians which made them 
enforce ecclesiastical taxes and fines, and that 
all had been given the dissenters that could be ; 
that the Presbyterians had " yielded every privi- 
lege they themselves enjoyed and subjected them 



436 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

(the dissenters) to no inconvenience, not abso- 
lutely indispensable to the countenance of the 
practice" (of dissent). David Daggett main- 
tained that there was a just and wide-spread 
alarm lest the Republicans should undermine all 
religion, and therefore it behooved all the friends 
of stable government to support the Standing 
Order. 

The Republicans vigorously contested the 
elections of 1804, 1805, and 1806. Their second 
general convention, that of August, 1806, at 
Litchfield, was more outspoken in its criticism. 
and so much bolder in its demands that many 
conservative people hesitated to follow its pro- 
gramme. The Republican gains were so small 
that after 1806 there was a lull in the agitation 
for constitutional reform for some years. It was 
well understood that the religious establishment 
was the greatest clog upon the government. It 
was also thoroughly understood by many that its 
destruction meant the destruction of the Federal 
party in Connecticut. Consequently the Fed- 
eral patronage distributed the several thousand 
offices within the gift of Church and State with a 
"liberality equalled only by the fidelity with 
which they were paid for." So firm was the 
Federal control over the state that even in 1804 
they risked antagonizing the Episcopalians by 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 437 

again refusing to charter the Cheshire Academy 
as a college with authority to confer degrees in 
art, divinity, and law. In the face of a strong 
protest, it was refused again in 1810. The 
House approved this last petition, but the Coun- 
cil rejected it. Naturally, the Episcopalians felt 
still more aggrieved when in 1812 the charter 
was once more refused ; but still they did not 
desert the Federal party. The latter clung to 
the spoils of office for their partisans, to the old 
restrictive franchise, and to the obnoxious Stand- 
up Law, nor were they less disdainful of the dis- 
senters and of the Republican minority. 

Yet many of their best men had come to feel that 
there was wrong and injustice done the minority ; that 
there should be a stop put to the open ignoring of 
Democratic lawyers, numbering in their ranks many 
men of wide learning and of great practical ability ; 
that the spectacle of a Federal state-attorney prosecut- 
ing Republican editors was not edifying, and that the 
imprisonment of such offenders and their trial before 
a hostile judiciary opened that branch of the state 
government to damaging and dangerous suspicion. '^"^ 

In July, 1812, a meeting was called in Judge 
Baldwin's office in New Haven, with President 
D wight in the chair, to organize a Society for 
the Suppression of Vice and the Promotion of 
Good Morals. At this meeting the political sit- 



438 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

uation was thoroughly discussed, and measures 
were taken to cope with it. 

I am persuaded [wrote the Rev. Lyman Beecher 
to Rev. Asahel Hooker in the following November] 
that the time has come when it becomes every friend 
of the State to wake up and exert his whole influence 
to save it from innovation. . . . That the effort to 
supplant Governor Smith'' will be made is certain 
unless at an early stage the noise of rising oj)position 
will be so great as to deter them ; and if it is made, 
a separation is made in the Federal party and a 
coalition with Democracy, which will in my opinion be 
permanent, unless the overthrow by the election should 
throw them into despair or inspire repentance. 

If we stand idle we lose our habits and institutions 
piecemeal, as fast as innovations and ambitions shall 
dare to urge on the work. 

My request is that you will see Mr. Theodore 
Dwight, expressing to him your views on the subject, 
. . . and that you will in your region touch every 
spring, lay or clerical, which you can touch prudently, 
that these men do not steal a march upon us, and that 
the rising opposition may meet them early, before 
they have gathered strength. Every blow struck now 
will have double the effect it will after the parties are 
formed and the lines drawn. I hope we shall not act 
independently, but I hope we shall all act, who fear 
God or regard men.^°® 

Writing of the meeting to organize the Society 

« Federalist. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 439 

for the Suppression of Vice and the Formation 
of Good Morals, Dr. Beecher in his "Auto- 
biography" gives a sketch of the politics of 
the time that had led up to the occasion. One 
of the prominent actors of the time, he tells us 
that this meeting, composed of prominent Feder- 
alists of all classes, was unusual, for — 

it was a new thing in that day for the clergy and 
laymen to meet on the same level and co-operate. It 
was the first time there had ever been such a consulta- 
tion in our day. The ministers had always managed 
things themselves, for in those days the ministers 
were all politicians. They had always been used to 
it from the beginning. . . . On election day they had 
a festival, and, fact is, when they got together they 
would talk over who should be Governor, and who 
Lieutenant-Governor, and who in the Upper House, 
and their councils would prevail. Now it was a part 
of the old steady habits of the state . . . that the 
Lieutenant-Governor should succeed to the governor- 
ship. And it was the breaking up of this custom by 
the civilians, against the influence of the clergy, that 
first shook the stability of the Standing Order and 
the Federal party in the state. Lieutenant Governor 
Treadwell (1810) was a stiff man, and the time had 
come when many men did not like that sort of thing. 
He had been active in the enforcement of the Sabbath 
laws, and had brought on himself the odium of the 
opposing party. Hence of the civilians of our party, 
David Daggett and other wire-pullers, worked to 



440 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

have him superseded, and Roger Griswold, the ablest 
man in Congress, put in his stead. That was rank 
rebellion against the ministerial candidate. But Dag- 
gett controlled the whole of Fairfield County bar, and 
Griswold was a favorite with the lawyers, and the 
Democrats helped them because they saw how it would 
work; so there was no election by the people, and 
Treadwell was acting Governor till 1811, when Gris- 
wold was chosen. The lawyers, in talking about it, 
said : " We have served the clergy long enough ; we 
must take another man, and they must look out for 
themselves." Throwing Treadwell over in 1811 broke 
the charm and divided the party ; persons of third- 
rate ability on our side who wanted to be somebody 
deserted ; all the infidels in the state had long been 
leading on that side . . . minor sects had swollen 
and complained of certificates. Our efforts to reform 
morals by law were unpopular." Finally the Episco- 
palians went over to the Democrats. 

« " To preserve our institutions and reform public morals, 
to bring back the keeping of the Sabbath was our aim. . . We 
tried to do it by resuscitating and enforcing the law (That was 
our mistake, but we did not know it then.) and wherever 1 
went I pushed that thing ; Bear up the laws — execute the laws. 
. . . We took hold of it in the Association at Fairfield, June, 
1814, . . . recommending among other things a petition to 
Congress." {Autobiography, i, 268.) At this meeting originated 
the famous petition against Sunday mail. 

Dr. Beecher urged a domestic missionary society to build up 
waste places in Connecticut. His sermon " Reformation of 
Morals practicable and desirable " warned against " profane 
and profligate men of corrupt minds and to every good work 
reprobate." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 441 

The Episcopal split was due to a foolish and 
arbitrary proceeding on the part of the Federals. 
In the spring of 1814, a petition was presented 
to the General Assembly for the incorporation 
of the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, offering " in 
conformity to the precedents in other states, to 
pay for the privilege of the incorporation herein 
prayed for, the sum of sixty thousand dollars to 
be collected (being a Premium to be advanced 
by the stockholders) as fast as the successive in- 
stalments of the capital stock shall be paid in ; 
and to be appropriated, if in the opinion of your 
Honors it shall be deemed expedient, in such 
proportion as shall by your Honors be thought 
proper, to the use of the Corporation of Yale 
College, of the Medical Institution, established 
in the city of New Haven, and to the corporation 
of the Trustees of the Fund of the Bishop of the 
Episcopal church in this state, or for any purpose 
whatever, which to your Honors may seem best." 
The capital asked for was 11,500,000. " The 
purpose of this offer ^ was a double one, — creat- 
ing an interest in favor of the Bank Charter 
among Episcopalians and retaining their in- 
fluence on the side of the Charter Govern- 
ment, as there was no inconsiderable amount 
of talent among them." The Bishop's Fund, 

" Judge Church. 



442 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

slowly gathering since 1799, amounted to barely 
16000. This bonus would give it a good start, 
and conciliate the Episcopalians, still indignant 
at the refusal of the Assembly to incorporate 
their college. When presented to the Assembly, 
the Lower House favored the bank charter; 
the Council, rejecting it, appointed a committee 
to consider its request. They soon originated 
an act of incorporation, granting a capital of 
$1,000,000, and ordered the bonus to be paid 
into the treasury. An act of incorporation, rather 
than a petition, was, they claimed, the way es- 
tablished by custom of granting bank charters. 
The same session of the legislature originated 
bills giving $20,000 to the Medical Institution 
of Yale College, and one of the same amount to 
the Bishop's Fund, " in conformity to the offer 
of the petitioners for the Phoenix Bank, and out 
of the first moneys received from it as a bonus." 
The biU for the medical school was passed unan- 
imously by the House ; that for the Bishop's 
Eund uniformly voted down.*^ The Episcopalians, 

" The final speech in favor of the bill was made by Nathan 
Smith, a lawyer of New Haven. When he had finished his 
eloquent setting forth of the benefits and dangers attendant 
upon passing- the bill, there was an unusual and solemn silence. 
Dr. Gillett says if the bill had been promptly put to vote it 
would probably have been passed, but the churchlike silence 
was broken by a shrill voice piping forth, ' ' Mr. Speaker, Mr. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 443 

to whom the Eepublicans were quick to offer their 
sympathy, asserted that by the " grant to Yale 
the legislature had committed themselves in good 
faith to make the grant to the two other corpo- 
rations connected with it in the same petition." ^ 
Stripped of formal and courteous wording, the 
petition, both in letter and in spirit, had offered 
its conditions to all, if accepted by one ; or, if 
refused at all, the opportunity to divert the money 
from all three recipients to some other and quite 
different use which should be approved by the 
legislature. 

The further bad faith of both branches of the 
Assembly increased the enmity of the Episco- 
palians. In the spring of 1815, they petitioned 
for their first installment of ilO,000. They were 
told that the treasury was empty, and that war 
time was no time to attend to such matters. In 
the fall, in answer to their second petition, they 
found the Lower House still hostile ; the major- 
ity of the Council, including the governor, in 
their favor, until the discussion came up, when 
the Council, with one exception, sided wjth the 
House. The explanation of the change appeared 

Speaker, what shall we sing- ? " The laug-hter which followed 
broke the orator's charm and sealed the fate of the bill. 

^ See Columbian Register of June 17, 1820, for a full account 
of the Bishop's Fund and the final award of the bonus. 



444 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

to the Episcopalians to be due to the fact that 
during the session the Medical School had peti- 
tioned for the balance of the ^30,000, and seemed 
likely to receive it at the spring meeting. This 
was too much for the Episcopalians, and there- 
after the Democrats claimed nine tenths of their 
vote. The sect was estimated in 1816 to contain 
from one eleventh to one thirteenth of the popula- 
tion. The Democratic-Republicans had won over 
discontented radicals, a majority of the dissatis- 
fied dissenters, a few conservatives, and now the 
indignant Episcopalians. Their political hopes 
rose higher, but the War of 1812-1814 interfered, 
substituting national interests for local ones, yet 
all the while adding recruits to the Republican 
ranks, so that at its close there was a strong 
party. There was also a Federal faction in pro- 
cess of disintegration. The result was that when 
the constitutional reform movement again became 
the issue of the day, though supported by the 
Republicans, the question at issue soon drew to 
itself a new political combine which under vari- 
ous forms kept the name of the Toleration Party, 
and which eventually won the victory for reli- 
gious freedom and disestablishment. 



CHAPTER XV 

DISESTABLISHMENT 
No distinction shall I make between Trojan and Tyrian. 

The Federal grip upon Connecticut, one of tlie 
last strongholds of that party, was weakening. 
Preceding the deflection of the Episcopalians in 
Connecticut, there had been throughout New 
England a strong Federal opposition to the na- 
tional government and its commands during the 
War of 1812. Such conduct had shattered party 
prestige, and when its opposition culminated in 
the Hartford Convention of 1814, it wrote its 
own death-warrant. The Republicans, on the 
contrary, had dropped local questions of consti- 
tutional reform and religious liberty, preferring 
to bend all their energies to the support of the 
general government. When as a national party 
they humbled England and brought the war to 
a victorious close, the contrast of their loyalty 
to state and national interests steadily drew the 
popular favor. In the era of good feeling and 
prosperity that followed, the great national polit- 



446 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ical parties dissolved somewhat and crystallized 
anew. In Connecticut a similar change took 
place in local politics. In the years immediately 
following the war, the Democratic-Republicans, 
the majority of the dissenters, and the dissatis- 
fied among the Federalists, formed different co- 
alitions that, under the general name of Toler- 
ation,*^ opposed the Standing Order. In 1816 the 
agitation for constitutional reform was revived, 
and after three years resulted in the overthrow 
of the Federalists and the triumph of a peaceful 
revolution whereby religious liberty was assured. 
The conduct of the Federal party, both within 
and without Connecticut from 1808 to 1815, 
was quite as much the real cause of their down- 
fall in the state as that coalition between clergy 
and lawyers described by Dr. Beecher as causing 
the breakdown of party machinery and its ulti- 
mate ruin. Glancing somewhat hastily at some 
of the most far-reaching acts of the Federalists, 
we find first the Federal opposition to the em- 
bargo that from December 22, 1807, for over a 
year paralyzed New England commerce. In 
February, 1809, John Quincy Adams, who had 
recently resigned the Massachusetts senatorship 
because of his unpopular support of the embargo, 

« Party names were " American," "American and Tolera- 
tion," " Toleration and Reform." 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 447 

informed President Jefferson that the measure 
could no longer be enforced. He assured the 
President that the New England Federalist 
leaders, privily encouraged by England, were 
preparing to break that section off from the 
union of the states if the embargo were not 
speedily repealed. This information, whether 
accurate or not, so influenced the President and 
his advisers that the Non-intercourse Act, apply- 
ing only to France and England, replaced the 
embargo, whose repeal took effect from March 4, 
1809. In the following December, Madison's 
administration (in the belief that France had 
withdrawn her hostile decrees) linaited non-inter- 
course to England alone, after having vainly 
urged upon her a repeal of her Orders in Coun- 
cil. With the embargo' lifted, New England 
commerce revived, and Connecticut seamen, Con- 
necticut farmers,"" Connecticut merchants, to- 
gether with artisans of all the allied industries 
that were called upon in the fitting out of ships 
and cargoes, enjoyed two years of prosperity. 
The period was given over to money-getting, and 
the ordinary rules of national or commercial 
honesty were flung to the winds. Napoleon sold 
licenses to British vessels to supply his famish- 

« Three fourths of Connecticut's exports were products of 
agriculture. 



448 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ing soldiers stationed in continental ports, while 
forged American and British papers were openly 
sold in London. So enormous were the profits 
of a successful voyage that the possibility of 
capture only added zest to the American ven- 
tures and contributed not a little to the daring 
of the privateers in the years of the war. So 
enriched was the state that by May, 1811, Con- 
necticut had so far recovered from her late finan- 
cial distress that the " state owed no debt and 
every tax was paid," while her exjDorts were: 
domestic, 1994,216; foreign, 138,138, or a total 
of 11,032,354. 

The ninety days' embargo of 1812, the decla- 
ration of war (June 18, 1812), and the patrolling 
of Long Island Sound by a British fleet, brought 
such desolation to Connecticut that ships again 
lay rotting at the wharves, ropewalks and ware- 
houses were deserted, cargoes were without car- 
riers, and seamen were either scattered or idling 
about, a constant menace to the public peace. 
National taxes to support a detested war were 
laid upon the people at a time when their in- 
comes were ceasing, and their homes and pro- 
perty were laid bare to a plundering enemy. " A 
nation without fleets, without armies, with an 
impoverished treasury, with a frontier by sea and 
land extending many hundreds of miles, feebly 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 449 

defended" by fortifications old and neglected, 
had rushed headlong into war with the strongest 
nation of the earth without " counting the cost." 
Such was the opinion of the Federalists every- 
where and, at first, of the large wing of the Re- 
publican party who preferred peace. The Fed- 
eralists of Connecticut, when they saw a small 
majority sweep the nation into the conflict with 
Great Britain, believed the war threatened lib- 
erty of speech. They feared military despotism, 
when the general government demanded the 
control of the militia ; and that the war would 
prostrate " their civil and religious institutions 
by increasing taxation and loss of income."" 
They feared "national dismemberment" when 
the war measures, together with the presence of 
the British fleet blockading the coast, alternately 
angered the people almost to rebellion against an 
apparently indifferent central government, or 
drove them into plans for self-defense. Much 
of the opposition in New England is in part ac- 
counted for by the rebound towards Federalism 
which the declaration of the war caused, and by 

" " All institutions, civil, literary and ecclesiastical, felt the 
pressure, and seemed as if they must be crushed. Our schools, 
churches and government even, in the universal impoverish- 
ment, were failing- and the very foundations were shaken, when 
God interposed and took o£E the pressure." — Lyman Beecher, 
Autobiography^ i, 266. 



450 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the belief that the national election of 1812 
would be a Federal victory. Though it turned 
out to be a defeat, it consolidated and so strength- 
ened that party in New England that before the 
close of 1813 all the state executives were Fed- 
eralists and were arrayed against the administra- 
tion. The RepubKcans kept their hold upon 
the minority, partly by the diversion of the 
capital, thrown out of the carrying trade, into 
privateer ventures, war supplies, and manufac- 
tures. 

At the beginning of the war. Governor Gris- 
wold, of Connecticut, backed by both houses of 
the legislature, joined with Governor Strong 
of Massachusetts (supported only by the House 
of Representatives) in a refusal to place the mili- 
tia under regular officers of the United States 
army. They refused also to allow the quotas 
called for by General Dearborn (under the Act 
of Congress of April 10, 1812), for the expedi- 
tion against Canada, to leave the state. These 
executives claimed that the troops were not needed 
to execute the laws of the United States, to sup- 
press insurrection, or to repel invasion, — the only 
three constitutional reasons giving the President 
the right to consider himself "commander in 
chief of the militia of the several states." ^w By 
taking such a stand, the state governors assumed 



LIBERTY IN CONF'.JTICUT 451 

to decide whether a necessity existed that gave 
the President his constitutional right to call out 
the militia. Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, in his 
" Memoir of Governor Strong," exonerates that 
executive by pleading his intense convictions of 
duty, his loyal patriotism, and his later efficient 
aid " in defending the eastern coast of the state. 
Mr. Lodge reminds his reader that the gov- 
ernor's position was supported by the best law- 
yers, whom he had been at great pains to consult 
concerning state and federal rights, which, at 
that period, had not been so carefully examined 
and discriminated between as since. The same 
pleas may be urged for Governors Griswold ^ and 
Smith. The Connecticut legislature immediately 
passed an act for raising twenty-six hundred men 
for state defense under state officers. Governor 
Griswold's succes^ior. Gov. J. Cotton Smith, when 
Decatur was blockaded in the Thames, when the 
descent upon Saybrook was made, at the attack 
upon Stonington, and during those months when 
the enemy hovered upon the long exposed coast 
line, kept a large force of militia ready for duty. 
The state supported these troops, for, in the 

" The Massachusetts militia were placed under General Dear- 
bom, August 5, 1812. 

^ Governor Griswold died October, 1812, and was succeedecl 
in office by Lieutenant-Governor John Cotton Smith. 



452 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

wrangle over officership, the national govern- 
ment refused the promised supplies. 

The New England Federalists soon found seven 
great reasons for party action. They were the 
uncertain success of the war by land ; the great 
commercial distress ; " the possession by the 
enemy of a large part of Maine ; the publication 
of the terms upon which England would grant 
peace ; ^ the proposed legislation in the fall of 
1814, providing for the increase of the United 
States army by draft or conscription ; the pro- 
posed modified form of impressment of sailors ; 
and the bill allowing army officers to enlist mi- 
nors and apprentices over eighteen years of age, 

« The direct tax laid July 22-24, 1813, by the national gov- 
ernment, was apportioned in September, as follows : To Mas- 
sachusetts, $316,270.71 ; to Rhode Island, $34,702.18 ; and to 
Connecticut, $118,167.71, divided as follows (which shows 
the relative wealth of the different sections of the state), 
Litchfield, $19,065.72 ; Fairfield, $18,810.50 ; New Haven, 
$16,723.10 ; Hartford, $19,608.02 ; New London, $13,392.04; 
Middlesex, $9,064.20; Windham, $14,524.38; and Tolland, 
$6,984.69. Duties were levied upon refined sugar, carriages, 
upon licenses to distilleries, auction sales of merchandise and 
vessels, upon retailers of wine, spirits, and foreign merchandise; 
whUe a stamp tax was placed upon notes and bills of ex- 
change. — See Niles Register^ v, 17 ; Schouler, ii, 380. The 
tax in 1815 was $236,335.41. — Niles, vii, 348. 

^ Briefly, an independent Indian nation between Canada 
and the United States ; no fleets or military posts on the Great 
Lakes, and no renunciation of the English rights of search and 
impressment. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 453 

with or without consent of parents or guardians." 
These measures drove the New England Federal- 
ists, at the call of Massachusetts, to the formation 
of the Hartford Convention. The Connecticut 
legislature approved the sending of delegates by 
a vote of 153 to 36 opposed. Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island answered with like enthusiasm. 
New Hampshire and Vermont hesitated, but the 
counties of Cheshire and Grafton in the former 
state and of Windham in the latter sent each a 
delegate to the convention. Rhode Island sent 
four delegates and Massachusetts twelve, of whom 
George Cabot was elected president of the con- 
vention. Connecticut furnished the secretary of 
the convention, and later its historian in Theo- 
dore Dwight of Hartford. She also sent seven 
other delegates, namely : Chauncey Goodrich, 
mayor of Hartford, and from 1814 to 1815 gov- 
ernor of the state ; John Tread well, ex-governor ; 

" The April (1815) session of the Connecticut legislature 
passed an " Act to secure the rights of parents, masters and 
guardians." It declared the proposed legislation in Congress 
contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, 
and an unauthorized interference with state rights. It com- 
manded all state judges to discharge on habeas corpus all 
minors enlisted without consent of parents or guardians, and 
it enacted a fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, upon any 
one found guilty of enlisting a minor against the consent of 
his guardian, and a fine of one hundred dollars for the adver- 
tising or publication of enticements to minors to enlist. 



464 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

James HilUiouse, who had served as United States 
representative and senator; Zephaniah Swift, 
United States representative and later chief 
judge of superior court of Connecticut ; Calvin 
Goddard, United States representative ; Na- 
thaniel Smith, United States representative and 
later judge of the supreme court ; and Koger 
Minot Sherman, a distinguished lawyer and 
member of the state legislature. All the dele- 
gates to the Hartford Convention were men of 
high character, and most of them well-known 
leaders of the Federal party. The convention 
lasted for three weeks, and, as its sessions were 
conducted with the greatest secrecy, many preju- 
dicial rumors and surmises arose. The Massa- 
chusetts summons had bidden the delegates con- 
vene for measures of safety " not repugnant to our 
obligations as members of the Union," and the 
convention acknowledged that it found the great- 
est difficulty in " devising means of defense 
against dangers, and of relief from oppressions 
proceeding from the act of their own Govern- 
ment without violating constitutional principles 
or disappointing the hopes of a sufFering and 
injured people." The secrecy, the known ant- 
agonism to the Administration, the knowledge 
of New England's early disbelief in the cohe- 
sive power of the Union, and the convention's 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 455 

demands and resolutions, combined to give a bad 
and traitorous reputation to the Hartford Con- 
vention that has never been absolutely cleared 
away. 

As early as 1796, over the signature " Pel- 
ham," there had appeared in the " Hartford Cou- 
rant " a series of articles written with great 
ability and keen foresight as to the difficulties 
that would arise in making any impartial legis- 
lation for a nation composed oi parts having 
such diverse economic systems as those of the 
North and the South. The articles suggested 
the development of two nations instead of 
one. During the War of 1812, various sugges- 
tions had been thrown out by different news- 
papers enlarging upon the resources of New 
England and hinting at a separate peace with 
England. There were not a few who, upon learn- 
ing of the resolutions of the convention, felt 
that " Pelham " was a close adviser of its mea- 
sures if not one of its delegates. Public opinion 
was so wrought up by the assumed disloyalty of 
the Hartford Convention that in 1815 it forced 
the publication of the convention's brief and 
non-committal "Journal." From it little more 
was learned than that the convention had re- 
solved that the different states should take mea- 
sures to protect themselves against draft by the 



456 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

national government, that New England should 
be allowed to defend herself, and for that pur- 
pose should have returned to each of her states 
a reasonable share of the national taxes to meet 
the expense of their arming. In addition, each 
New England state should set apart a certain 
portion of her militia under her governor to give 
aid in cases of extremity should she be called 
upon by the governor of another state. At the 
close of the convention, delegates were appointed 
to proceed to Washington with these resolutions 
and also with six proposed amendments ^ to the 
national constitution. These demands and re- 
solves were reinforced by the proposal that 
should the Administration refuse to consider the 
propositions, another convention should be held in 
the following summer to consider further action. 
When the delegates arrived in Washington with 
the resolutions, of which two state legislatures had 
meantime approved, the news of peace had been 
declared. In the general jubilation they saw fit 

^ Amendments : (1) Restrictions upon Congress requiring a 
two thirds vote in making and declaring war, (2) in laying 
embargoes, and (3) in admitting new states. (4) Restriction of 
the presidential office to one term without reelection, and with 
no two successive Presidents from the same state. (5) Reduc- 
tion of representation and taxation by not reckoning the blacks 
in the slave states. (6) No foreign born citizen should be eligi- 
ble to office. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 457 

to leave their message undelivered. For years 
the taint of rebellion clung to the Hartford Con- 
vention, and forced its secretary, in 1833, to pub- 
lish his " History," a defense of its members and 
their measures. Even this did not remove the 
stigma. The delegates had in their own com- 
munities always retained their reputation for 
high personal character, but politically they were 
irretrievably ruined by their participation in the 
Hartford gathering. They had dealt their party 
in their states a mortal blow, and the Hartford 
Convention has been well named " the grave of 
the Federal party." 

However much the members of the convention 
swathed their sentiments in expressions of alle- 
giance to the Union, at least until extreme pro- 
vocation should force a separation ; or however 
much they declared their conviction that peace, 
not war, should be the time chosen for such 
a separation, and that, first of all, distinction 
should be carefully made between a bad consti- 
tution and a bad government, and a good con- 
stitution or government badly administered, 
there was no doubt but that they proposed to 
push nullification to the point of active resist- 
ance within what they considered their legal 
rights. They had also proposed a set of amend- 
ments which they knew stood no chance of meet^ 



458 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

ing with approval from any number of the states. 
Moreover the Hartford Convention, whatever its 
intentions, seriously alarmed and embarrassed 
the Administration. Because of the consequences 
of their policy, its members were culpable in the 
opinion of all who hold that, in the distress of 
war, to hamper one's own government is to lend 
assistance to the enemy." 

The war at first was not popular, but made 
friends for itself as it progressed. Connecticut 
sailors were among the seamen that England had 
impressed, and Connecticut captains had sur- 
rendered ships and rich cargoes at the command 
of the mistress of the seas. But the naval tri- 
umphs of the first year caught the popular fancy, 
for " not until the Guerriere's colors were struck 
to the Constitution had a British frigate been 
humiliated on the ocean." The victories on land 
were about equally balanced. The disclosures of 
English perfidy in attempting through her secret 
agents * to detach New England from the Union 

" " They advocated nullification and threatened dissolution 
of the Union." — J. P. Gordy, Political History of the United 
States, ii, 299. 

^ The President in March, 1812, sent to Congress the docu- 
ments for which he had paid one John Henry $50,000. The 
latter claimed to be an agent sent from Canada in 1809 
to detach New England Federalists from their allegiance to 
the Union. Congress by resolution proclaimed the validity of the 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 459 

before war should break out, and during the 
conflict, by favoritism to Massachusetts, helped 
to increase the supporters of the war policy. 
Further, the war brought out the latent powers 
of the nation, both for defense and for prosper- 
ity. The gradual introduction of machinery since 
1800 had enlarged the small manufactories of 
Connecticut, and begun the exchange of products 
between near localities. But before the War 
of 1812 no manufacturing in Connecticut had 
achieved a notable success." There was invention 

documents. The British minister solemnly denied all know- 
ledge of them on the part of his government. The American 
people helieved in their authenticity, which belief was con- 
firmed during the war by the distinct favor shown for a while 
to Massachusetts, and by the hope, openly entertained by 
England, of separating New England from New York and the 
southern states. 

" Manufactures in Connecticut (abridged from the U. S. mar- 
shal's report in the autumn of 1810, cited in Niles* Register, 
vi, 323-333) were represented by 14 cotton mills, 15 woolen 
mills. (By 1815 New London county alone had 14 woolen mills 
and 10 cotton.) These had increased to 60 cotton in 1819, 
and to 36 woolen. Flax cloth, blended or unnamed cloths, and 
wool cloth, — all these made in families, — amounted to a yearly 
valuation of $2,151,972; hempen cloth, $12,148; stockings, 
$111,021 ; silks (sewing and raw), $28,503 ; hats to the value 
of $522,200; straw bonnets, $25,100 ; shell, horn, and ivory in 
manufactured products, $70,000. Looms for cotton numbered 
16,132 ; carding machines, 184 ; fulling mills, 213, and there 
were 11,883 spindles. 

In iron, wood, and steel : 8 furnaces, with output of $46,180 ; 
48 forges, $183,910; 2 rolling and slitting miUs, 32 trip- 



460 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and skill,^ and often profit, in the home market 
for the coarser products, but there was a general 
tendency to prefer imported goods of finer make. 
The war cut off such supplies, and the need cre- 
ated a paying demand and developed an ability 
to supply it. The political party that conducted 
the war to a successful finish developed the policy 
of protection of infant industries, and the tariff 
of 1816 gave birth to Connecticut as a manu- 
facturing state. The repeal of the obnoxious war 
measures, the speedy reduction of the national 
expenses, and the promise of prosperity smoothed 

hammers, $91,146 ; 18 naileries, $27,092 ; 4 brass foundries, 
1 type foundry, brass jewelry, and plaited ware, $49,200; metal 
buttons, 155,000 gross, or $102,125 ; guns, rifles, etc., $49,050. 

Among other manufactories and manufactures there were 
408 tanneries, $476,339 ; shoes, boots, etc., $231,812 ; the tin 
plate industry, $139,370 ; 560 distilleries, $811,144 ; 18 paper 
mills, $82,188; ropewalks, $243,950; carriages, $68,855, 
and the beginnings of brick-making, glass-works, pottery, 
marble works, which, with the state's 24 flaxseed mills and 
seven gunpowder mills, brought the sum total to approximately 
$6,000,000. 

Still the great impetus to manufacturing, which completely 
revolutionized the character of the state, followed the Joint- 
stock Act of 1837, with its consequent investment of capital 
and rush of emigration, resulting in later days in a develop- 
ment of the cities at the expense of the rural districts. 

" Gilbert Brewster, the Arkwright of American cotton ma- 
chinery, Eli Whitney, with his cotton gin and rifle improve- 
ments, and John Fitch, with his experiments with steam, are 
the most distinguished among a host of men who made Yankee 
ingenuity and Yankee skill proverbial. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 461 

out lingering resentment. The Federal party was 
virtually extinct outside of its last strongholds in 
New England and Delaware. In the Era of Good 
Feeling following the war the whole people com- 
posed one party, with principles neither those of 
4he original Federal party nor those of the origi- 
nal Eepublican party, but a combination of both.'* 
In New England during the War of 1812, as 
in the Ee volution, the clergy had been the nucleus 
of the local dominant party, and with its leaders 
had been bitter opponents of the " unrighteous 
war." 20^ Consequently the Congregational clergy 
shared in the popular disapproval and condemna- 
tion that overtook the Federalists. In Connecti- 
cut, for a time, the Standing Order by its affilia- 
tion with the Federal party prolonged its control 
of the state. But the tide was turning. Dr. 
Lyman Beecher, Dr. Dwight's able lieutenant, 
made vigorous and laudable efforts to uphold the 
Dwights, the Aaron and Moses, as it were, of the 

« " Era of Good Feeling-, 1817-1829. The best principles of 
the Federalists, the preservation and perpetuity of the Federal 
government, had been quietly accepted by the Republicans, 
and the Republican principle of limiting the powers and duties 
of the Federal government had been adopted by the Federal- 
ists. The Republicans deviated so far from their earlier strict 
construction views as in 1816 to charter a national bank for 
twenty years, and to model it upon Hamilton's bank of 1791 
which they had refused to re-charter in 1811." — A. Johnson, 
American Politics, pp. 80, 81. 



462 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

waning political power. The " Home Missionary 
Society," " Bible societies, the " Domestic Mis- 
sionary Society for the Building np of Waste 
Places," and the many branches of the " Society 
for the Suppression of Vice and Promotion of 
Good Morals " ^ did much good among those 
who welcomed them. Where their results were 
simply those of a morality enforced by law, 
they caused still greater dissatisfaction with 
the ruling party.'' The union of the clergy and 

a " This was for the support of missions outside the state. 
The Domestic or State Home Missionary Society undertook the 
buiding up of places within the state that were without suit- 
able religious care. The former finally absorbed the latter when 
its origLaal purpose was accomplished. Then, there was the 
Litchfield County Foreign Mission Society, founded in 1812, the 
first auxiliary of the American Board, which began its career 
in 1810, and was incorporated the same year that its youngest 
branch was organized." — Lyman Beecher, Autobiography, i, 
275, 287-88 and 291. 

b Organized in New Haven in October, 1812, with Dr. Dwight 
as chairman. Members of the committee upon organization in- 
cluded nearly all the prominent men of that day, both of the 
clergy and of the bar. A list is given in Lyman Beecher, Au- 
tobiography, i, 256. 

^ " We really broke up riding and working on the Sabbath, 
and got the victory. The thing was done, and had it not been 
for the political revolution that followed, it would have stood 
to this day. . . . The efforts we made to execute the laws, and 
secure a reformation of morals, reached the men of piety, and 
waked up the energies of the whole state, so far as the mem- 
bers of our churches, and the intelligent and moral portion of 
our congregation were concerned. These, however, proved to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 463 

lawyers was not as influential as had been antici- 
pated in the early days of 1812. Soon after the 
war the clergy adopted a less vigorous policy, 
preferring an attitude of defense against cal- 
umny and a withdrawal from politics." 

The elections showed the change in public 
opinion. At the April election, 1814, the Fed- 
erals reelected Governor Smith, while the Ee- 
publican candidate, Mr. Edward Boardman, 
received 1629 votes. The following year, not- 
withstanding Governor Smith's reelection, Mr. 
Boardman polled 4876 votes, and the Eepubli- 
cans made a gain of twenty in the House of 
Representatives, while in the fall nominations for 
Assistants, the highest Federal vote was 9008 
and that of the Republicans was 4268.^09 

In January, 1816, " a meeting of citizens from 
various parts of the state " was held in New 
Haven to agree upon a nomination for governor 

be a minority of the suffrage of the state." — Lyman Beecher, 
Autobiography, i, 268. 

" In Pomfret the Justice of the Peace arrested and fined 
townspeople who persisted in working on Sunday, and held 
travellers over until Monday morning." — E. D. Larned, History 
of Windham, ii, 448. 

" *'The odium thrown upon the ministry was inconceivable. 
. . . The Congregational ministers agreed to hold back and 
keep silent until the storm blew over. Our duty as well as 
policy was explanation and self-defence, expostulation and con- 
ciliation." — Autobiography, i, 344. 



464 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

and lieutenant-governor, which would bind to- 
gether the Republicans and such of the Federal- 
ists as were opposed to the Standing Order. 
Oliver Wolcott and Jonathan IngersoU were 
unanimously agreed upon. Oliver Wolcott had 
been living out of the state for fourteen years, 
and for most of that time had not been in 
politics. His Republican supporters had had 
time to forget him as a staunch Federalist, and 
remembered him only as a man of parts who 
had held the secretaryship of the treasury under 
Washington and Adams, and who had " opposed 
the Hartford Convention ; like Washington was 
a friend to the Union^ a foe to rebellion; with 
mild means resisted bigotry, with a glowing 
heart favored toleration." 210 As he had approved 
the policy of the general government since the 
days of Madison, he was pronounced an available 
candidate. A good Congregationalist, he would 
not offend the Federalists, would be acceptable 
to the Republicans, and would stand to the cap- 
italists and farmers as favorable to a protective 
tariff and to more equitable taxation within the 
state. The prestige given him by the executive 
abilities of his father and grandfather in the 
gubernatorial chair also counted in his favor. 
The candidate for lieutenant-governor was Jon- 
athan IngersoU, a Federalist, an eminent New 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 466 

Haven lawyer, a prominent Episcopalian, senior 
warden of Trinity Cliurcli, and chairman of the 
Bishop's Fund. He had had political training 
in the Council, 1792-1798, and had been judge 
of the Superior Court, 1798-1801, and again 
from 1811 to 1816. His nomination was the 
price of the Episcopal vote, for " it was deemed 
expedient by giving the Episcopalians a fair 
opportunity to unite with the Republicans, to at- 
tempt to affect such change in the Government 
as should afford some prospect of satisfaction to 
their united demands." ^ 

The " Connecticut Herald," indignant at the 
Assembly's conduct in the Phoenix Bank affair, 
left the Federal party and independently nomi- 
nated Jonathan Ingersoll for lieutenant-governor 
instead of the regular candidate of that party, 
Chauncey Goodrich. The " American Mercury," 

« " Aristides," March 26, 1826, and " Episcopalian," March 
13, issues of the American Mercury. 

" When the Episcopal Church petitioned the legislature in 
vain, as she did for a series of years, for a charter to a college, 
he (the Rev. Philo Shelton of Fairfield) with others of his 
brethren proposed a union with the political party, then in a mi- 
nority, to secure what he regarded a just right. And the first 
fruit of the union was the charter of Trinity (Washington) 
College, Hartford. He was one of a small number of clergy- 
men who decided on this measure, and were instrumental in 
carrying it into efEect ; and it resulted in a change in the politics 
of the State which has never yet been reversed." — Sprague's 
Annals of American Pulpit (Episcopal), v, 35. 



466 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the organ of tlie American Toleration party, the 
union of Republicans, dissenters, and dissatisfied, 
in order " to produce that concord and harmony 
among parties which have too long, and without 
any real diversity of interests, been disturbed, 
and which every honest man must earnestly de- 
sire to see restored," nominated for governor, 
Oliver Wolcott ; for lieutenant-governor, Jona- 
than Ingersoll. The Federal candidate for the 
executive was Governor John Cotton Smith, up 
for reelection. The Tolerationists failed by a few 
hundred votes to seat their candidate for the ex- 
ecutive, with the result that the election of 1816 
raised to office Governor Smith and Lieutenant- 
Governor Ingersoll. Governor Smith received 
11,589 votes, Mr. Wolcott 10,170, while Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Ingersoll polled a majority of 
1453 over his opponent, Mr. Calvin Goddard. 
It was the first time that a dissenter had held so 
high an office. The Federalists might have seized 
the opportunity to renew their former friendship 
with the Episcopalians had it not been for their 
stubbornness and for their old fear of Churchmen 
in political office. At the October town meetings, 
the returns from ninety-three towns gave a Fed- 
eral vote of 7995 and a Republican of 6315 for 

" Total vote for goveruor 21,759. Mr. Goddard received 
9421 votes. — J. H. Trumbull, Hist. Notes, p. 36. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 467 

representatives, with a Federal majority of about 
thirty in the House.^^^ 

The Federalists, realizing that the Episcopal 
vote was almost lost to them, that their domestic 
policy was in disfavor, and that their conduct 
during the war had damaged them and was lead- 
ing to their downfall in Connecticut even as in 
the nation, resolved upon a desperate measure 
to conciliate a larger number of the dissenters. 
This was the Act of October, 1816, for the Support 
of Literature and Religion. Briefly, it divided 
the balance of the money which the nation owed 
Connecticut for expenses during the war, namely 
$145,000, among the various denominations. To 
the Congregationalists it gave in round num- 
bers, and including the grant to Yale, $68,000 ; 
to the Episcopalians, 120,000 ; to Methodists, 
112,000 ; and to Baptists, $18,000 ; to Quakers, 
Sandemanians, etc., nothing.^ The Quakers were 
assumed to be satisfied with their recent ex- 
emptions from military duty upon the payment 
of a small tax ; Sandemanians and other insig- 
nificant sects to be conciliated by the act of the 

°' The law apportioned one third of the money to the Con- 
gregationalists ; one seventh to Yale ; one seventh to the Epis- 
copalians ; one eighth to the Baptists ; one twelfth to the 
Methodists, and the balance to the state treasury. — Cited in 
Connecticut Courant, November 8, 1816. Acts and Laws, pp. 
279, 280. 



468 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

preceding April, whicli repealed, after a duration 
of nearly one hundred and eighty years, the fine of 
fifty cents for absence from church on Sunday. 
The people were at last free, not only to wor- 
ship as they chose, but when they chose, or to 
omit worship. They had yet to obtain equal 
privileges for all denominations, and exemption 
from enforced support of religion. 

The passage of the Act for the Support of 
Literature and Religion raised, as the Congre- 
gation alists ought to have known it would, a 
violent protest from every dissenter and from 
every political come-outer. Some of the towns 
in town-meetings opposed the bill as unneces- 
sary for the support of schools and clergy ; as 
wasteful, when it would be wiser to create a 
state fund; and as unduly favorable to Yale, 
where the policy was to create an intellectual 
class and not to advance learning and literature 
among the commonalty. At Andover, February 
1, 1817, Episcopalians, Baptists, and Methodists 
met together and denounced the act because 
they disapproved of the union of Church and 
State which it encouraged; because of Yale's 
tendency to bias religion ; because they all ap- 
proved of the voluntary support of religion ; and 
because they all scorned such a political trick as 
the bill appeared to them, namely, an attempt to 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 469 

win by their acceptance of the money their 
apparent approval of the enforced support of re- 
ligion. The Baptist societies in different towns 
met to condemn the measure on the same grounds, 
and on the additional ones that it was unfair to 
the Quakers, who had no paid preachers ; to the 
Universalists, because they were numerically still 
too small to be of political importance ; and in- 
deed to many men, since, as every man had con- 
tributed to the expense of the war, every man 
ought to be rewarded proportionally. The Metho- 
dists agreed in all these criticisms, and were no 
more backward in denouncing a measure which 
forced on them money they did not seek, and 
for a purpose of which they disapproved. The 
Methodist Society of Glastonbury were most 
outspoken, declaring the law — 

incompatible with sound policy and inconsistent with 
any former act of the legislature of the state ; the 
ultimate consequence of which will prove a lasting 
curse to vital religion, which every candid and re- 
flecting mind may easily foresee ; and we view it as 
a very bold and desperate effort to effectuate a union 
between Church and State. . . . We are induced to 
believe that Pilate and Herod, and the chief Priests 
are still against us, . . . $12,000 to the contrary 
notwithstanding. Resolved — 

(1) We don't want such reparation for being 
characterized as an illiterate set of enthusiasts 



470 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

devoid of character ; our clergy a set of worthless 
ramblers, unworthy the protection of our civil laws. 

(2) Pity and contempt for the Legislature should 
be expressed for bribery. 

(3) We believe the money, if received, would be a 
lasting curse. 

(4) The measure was intended for politics, not re- 
ligion, and was a species of Tyranny. 

(5) We should use our best endeavors to have the 
money used for state expenses. 

(6) Thanks should be sent to the members of the 
Legislature who had opposed the measure. 

All Methodists were further angered by the 
affront put upon them by the General Assembly, 
which, in spite of their known determination 
not to receive the money, appointed Methodist 
trustees, of whom a majority were Federalists, 
to receive their share of the appropriation. The 
trustees accepted the money, defending their 
action on the ground that they believed that 
their claim would become void if they did not 
draw the money, and it might then be put to 
a worse use. But the Methodist societies did 
not uphold the trustees, and " regretted the com- 
mittee imposed on us by the Legislature of 
the state." The chairman of the committee, the 
Eev. Augustus BoUes, refused to serve, and the 
societies rejected the money.*^ 

<* The first installment, $50,000, was paid into the Treasury in 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 471 

As a result of the unwelcome legislation, the 
Republicans received the whole vote of the Meth- 
odists for the " Toleration and Reform Ticket " 
of 1817, which repeated the nominations of the 
preceding election. The Episcopalians of course 
favored the reelection of Lieutenant-Governor 
IngersoU. One small provocation by the Con- 
gregationalists of the First Church of New 
Haven — the attempt to place the odium of 
expulsion upon a member who became an Episco- 
palian — did not tend to allay feeling. The Tol- 
eration party were sure of the votes of the more 
feeble dissenters, whose interests they promised 
to regard, as well as of those of the Baptists 
and of such Federalists as disapproved of the 
high-handed policy of the Standing Order. The 
Tolerationists were also counting upon a steady 
increase of recruits from the Federal ranks as 
soon as the appreciation of a recent attack by 

June, 1817. The Methodists, and later the Baptists, accepted 
their share, but not until political events had removed some of 
their objections. 

See the Mirror, February 16, 1818. It was not until 1820 
that the final acceptance of the money took place. 

J. H. Trumbull, Hist. Notes, p. 36, foot-note, gives the fol- 
lowing figures. By November, 1817, $61,500 had been received 
and apportioned : Congregationalists, $20,500.00 ; Trustees of 
the Bishop's Fund, $8,785.71 ; Baptist Trustees, $7,687.50 ; 
Methodist Trustees, $5,125.00 ; Yale College, $8,785.71, and a 
balance still unappropriated of $10,616.08. 



472 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

the legislature upon tlie judiciary and its danger 
should become more and more realized. Many 
such recruits, convinced of the necessity of con- 
stitutional reform, had gathered at the general 
meeting of Republicans held in New Haven in 
October, 1816, to make up the ticket for the 
spring election of 1817. The campaign issue 
was " whether freemen shall be tolerated in the 
free exercise of their religious and political 
rights." It was met by the election of Governor 
Wolcott with a majority of 600 votes over ex- 
Governor J. Cotton Smith, and by no opposition 
to the reelection of Lieutenant-Governor Inger- 
soll.° At the same election many minor Repub- 
lican officials were seated, and the House went 
Republican by an assured majority of nearly two 
to one, the Senate remaining strongly Federal. 

Governor Wolcott's inaugural placed before 
the Assembly the following subjects for consid- 
eration: (1) A new system of taxation; for, as 
the governor pointed out, the capitation tax was 
equivalent to about one-sixteenth of the laboring 

" Legal returns g-ave Wolcott 13,655 

Smith 13,119 

Scattering 202 13,321 



334 
'' The correction of errors increased the majority to 600, which 
the Federalists conceded. — J. H. Trumbull, Hist. Notes, p. 38, 
footnote. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 473 

man's income. (2) Judges of the Superior 
Court should hold their office during good be- 
havior instead of by annual appointment by the 
legislature. (3) There should be a complete 
separation of legislative and judicial powers of 
government. (4) Eights of conscience and the 
voluntary support of religion, though if neces- 
sary with " laws providing efficient remedies for 
enforcing the voluntary contracts for their [min- 
isters'] support," should be considered ; and 
(5) Freedom of suffrage. In concluding, the 
governor urged that " whenever the public mind 
appears to be considerably agitated on these 
subjects, prudence requires that the legislature 
should revise its measures, and by reasonable 
explanation or modifications of the law, restore 
public confidence and tranquillity." ^ 

To consider briefly these various points : Taxes 
upon mills, machinery, and manufactures needed 
to be light in order to secure their continued ex- 
istence. The necessities of war-time had created 
a larger market for their products, but one that 
could not be continued after the close of the war 
allowed European products to enter free of duty. 
Nor could the factories exist if burdened with 
heavy taxes before the new tariff measures of 

^ Governor Wolcott's speech, Connecticut Courant, May 20, 
1817 ; also Niks' Begister, xii, pp. 201-204. 



474 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

1816 had revived these depressed industries. In 
agriculture, taxes upon horses, oxen, stock, dairy 
products, and increased areas of tillage handi- 
capped the farmer. Again, the tax upon fire- 
places, rather than upon houses, weighed heavily 
upon the poor and the moderately well-to-do, 
who built small and inexpensive houses with say 
three fireplaces, while the rich owners of older 
and more pretentious dwellings were often rated 
for fewer.'^ Money was scarce, rich men rare. 
So also was great poverty. There was a scanty 
living for the majority. Trades were few, wages 
low. A farm-hand averaged three shillings a 
day, paid in provisions. Women of all work 
drudged for two shillings and sixpence per week, 
while a farm overseer received a salary of seventy 
dollars a year. The children of people in aver- 
age circumstances walked barefoot to church, 
carrying their shoes and stockings, which they 
put on under the shelter of the big tree nearest 
to the meeting-house. Their fathers made one 
Sunday suit last for years. The wealthy had 
small incomes, though relatively great. It was 
whispered that Pierpont Edwards, the rich and 
prosperous New Haven lawyer, had an income 

« " In our elimate, three fireplaces are occasionally neces- 
sary to the comfortable accommodation of every family." 
— Governor's speech. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 475 

from his law practice of two thousand dollars 
per year. 

Points (2) and (3) in the governor's address 
were prompted by the widespread interest cre- 
ated by the action of the legislature in October, 
1815, when it had set aside the conviction, by a 
special Superior Court at Middletown, of Peter 
Lung for murder, on the ground that the court 
was irregularly and illegally convened. The 
chief judge was Zephaniah Swift of Windham, 
author of the " System of Connecticut Laws." '^ 
Judge Swift appealed to the public ^ to vindicate 
his judicial character from the censure implied 
by the Assembly's action. An ardent Federalist, 
who in the early days of statehood could see no 
need of a better constitution than he then insisted 
Connecticut possessed through the adoption of 
her ancient charter, he had long opposed the 
ecclesiastical establishment which that charter 
upheld. In his defense of the constitution he 
had maintained that "it ought to be deemed 
an inviolable maxim that when proper courts of 
law are constituted^ the legislature are divested 
of all judicial authority y^^'^ But when the leg- 
islature claimed as constitutional the right to call 

« Published 1795. 

^ A vindication of the calling" of the Special Superior Court 
at Middletown . . . for the trial of Peter Lung . . . with obser- 
vations, &c. Windham, 1816. 



476 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

to account any court, magistrate, or other officer 
for misdemeanor or mal-administration," Judge 
Swift admitted the lack of " a written constitu- 
tion." He further argued that the one " made up 
of usages and customs, had always been imder- 
stood to contain certain fundamental axioms 
which were held sacred and inviolable, and which 
were the basis on which rested the rights of the 
people." Of these self-evident principles one was 
that the three branches of government — the ex- 
ecutive, legislative, and judicial — were coordi- 
nate and independent, and that the powers of one 
should never be exercised by the other. " It ought 
to be held as a fundamental axiom," the judge 
declared, " that the Legislature should never en- 
croach on the jurisdiction of the Judiciary^ nor 
assume the province of interfering in private 
rights, nor of overhauling the decisions of the 
courts of law." Otherwise, " the legislature would 
become one great arbitration that would engulf 
all the courts of law,* and sovereign discretion 

" The legislature had also interfered with decisions regard- 
ing the Symsbury patent. See E. Kirby, Law Reports, p. 446. 

^ A summary of the Connecticut constitution, taken from 
Niles's Register, asserts that the General Court has sole power 
to make and repeal laws, grant levies, dispose of lands belong- 
ing to the state to particular towns and persons, to erect and 
style judicatories and officers as they shall see necessary for 
the good government of the people ; also to call to account any 
court, magistrate, or other officer for misdemeanor and malad- 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 477 

would be the only rule of decision, — a state of 
things equally favorable to lawyers and crimi- 

"213 



ministration, or for just cause may fine, displace, or remove 
them, or deal otherwise as the nature of the case shall require ; 
and may deal or act in any other matter that concerns the good 
of the state except the election of governor, deputy-governor, 
assistants, treasurer and secretary, which shall be done by the 
freemen at the yearly court of election, unless there be any 
vacancy by reason of death or otherwise, after an election, 
when it may be filled by the General Court. This court has 
power also, for reasons satisfactory to them, to grant suspen- 
sion, release, and jail delivery upon reprieves in capital and 
criminal cases. 

The elections for the assistants and superior officers are 
annual ; for the representatives, semi-annual. The sessions of 
the General Court are semi-annual. The Governor and the 
speaker have the casting vote in the Upper and Lower House, 
respectively. 

The Superior Court consists of one chief judge ■ and four 
others, and holds two sessions in each county each year. Its 
jurisdiction holds over all criminal cases extending to life, 
limb, or banishment ; all criminal cases brought from county 
courts by appeal or writ of error, and in some matters of 
divorce. 

The county court consists of one judge and four justices of 
the quorum, with jurisdiction over all criminal cases not extend- 
ing to life, limb, or banishment, and with original jurisdiction 
in all civil actions where the demand exceeds forty shillings. 

Justices of the Peace, in the various towns, have charge of 
civil actions involving less than forty shillings, and crimi- 
nal jurisdiction in some cases, where the fine does not exceed 
forty shillings, or the punishment exceed ten stripes or sitting 
in the stocks. Judges and Justices are annually appointed by 
the General Court, and commonly reappointed during good 



478 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

Witli respect to the fifth point in the gov- 
ernor's address, the right of suffrage, the Eepub- 
licans and their allies demanded its extension 
from householders having real estate rated at 
$1 (40s.), or personal estate of |134 (X40), 
to " men who pay small taxes, work on highways, 
or do service in the militia." 

In the fall of 1817, the reform party had 
forced the repeal of the obnoxious Stand-Up 
Law, and it demanded that other restrictive 
measures should be annulled. So bitter was the 
Federal antagonism in the Council that during 

behavior, while sheriffs are appointed by the governor and 
council without time-limit and are subject to removah 

Recently county courts determined matters of equity invol- 
ving- from five pounds to two hundred pounds, the Superior 
Court two hundred pounds to sixteen hundred, and the Gen- 
eral Assembly all others. 

Probate districts, not coextensive with the counties, exist, 
with appeal to the Superior Court. 

In military matters, the governor is the captain-general of 
the militia, and the General Court appoints the general officers 
and field officers, and they are commissioned by the governor. 
Captains and subalterns are chosen by the vote of the com- 
pany and of the householders living within the limits of the 
company, but must be approved by the General Court and 
commissioned by the governor before they can serve. All mili- 
tary officers hold their commissions during the pleasure of 
the General Assembly and may not resign them without per- 
mission, except under penalty of being reduced to the ranks. — 
Niles^ Register, 1813, vol. iii, p. 443, etc. Corrected slightly 
by reference to Swift's System of Laws. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 479 

aU the spring session of 1817, the Tolerationists 
loudly complained that every reform measure 
proposed in the House was lost in the Federal 
Senate. The committees to which parts of the 
governor's speech had been referred for consid- 
eration did little. That on taxation made a re- 
port in the fall recommending that a careful 
investigation of conditions and resources should 
be made, because, as capital sought investment 
in banks, manufacturing, and various commercial 
enterprises unknown to the earlier generations,^ 
the fairness of the old system of taxation was 
lapsing. The mixed committee, including several 
Tolerationists and having an Episcopal chairman, 
that was to report upon the religious situation, 
gave no encouragement to dissenters. The spring 
session allowed one barren act to pass, the " Act 
to secure equal rights, powers, and privileges to 
Christians of all denominations in this state." 
It enacted that henceforth certificates should be 
lodged with the town derh^ and permitted a 
come-outer to return to the society from which 
he had separated. In the following spring, when 
an attempt was made to pass a bill to supersede 
this act, it was maintained that the law of 1817 
" did not effect the object or answer the desire 

« Banks and insurance companies began to organize about 
1790 to 1810. 



480 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

of the aggrieved party," for it retained the certifi- 
cate clause and continued to deny to dissenters 
the measure of religious liberty freely accorded 
to the Established churches. 

The Tolerationists were determined to carry 
the elections of 1818. In the fall elections of 
1817, they again had a majority of nearly two to 
one in the House, and consequently the struggle 
was for the control of the Senate. At the fall 
meetings, they placed in nomination their candi- 
dates for senators, and all through the winter they 
agitated in town meetings and in every other 
way the discussion of their " Constitution and 
Eeform Ticket." Party pamphlets were scattered 
throughout the state. One of these, the most in 
favor, was " The Pohtics of Connecticut : by a 
Federal Eepublican" (George H. Eichards of 
New London). At the spring elections of 1818, 
the Constitution and Eeform Ticket carried the 
day, seating the reelected governor and lieuten- 
ant-governor, eight anti-Federal senators, and 
preserving the anti-Federal majority in the 
House. The political revolution was complete, 
and the preliminary steps towards the construc- 
tion of a new constitution were at once begun." 

The governor's inaugural address specified 

** In 1818, for the first time, a dissenter, Mr. Croswell, rector 
of Trinity Church, New Haven, preached the Election Sermon. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 481 

the main task before tlie Assembly in the fol- 
lowing words : — 

As a portion of the people have expressed a de- 
sire that the form of civil government in this State 
should be revised, this highly interesting subject will 
probably engage your [the Assembly's] deliberations. 
. . . Considered merely as an instrument defining 
the powers and duties of magistrates and rulers, the 
Charter may justly be considered as unprovisional and 
imperfect. Yet it ought to be recollected that what 
is now its greatest defect was formerly a pre-eminent 
advantage, it being then highly important to the 
people to acquire the greatest latitude of authority 
with an exemption from British influence and control. 

If I correctly comprehend the wishes which have 
been expressed by a portion of our fellow citizens, 
they are now desirous, as the sources of apprehension 
from external causes are at present happily closed, 
that the Legislative, Executive and Judicial authori- 
ties of their own government may be more precisely 
defined and limited, and the rights of the people de- 
clared and acknowledged. It is your province to 
dispose of this important subject in such manner as 
will best promote general satisfaction and tranquillity. 

The House appointed a select committee of five 
to report upon the revision of the form of civil 
government. The Council appointed Hon. Elijah 
Boardman (Federalist) and Hon. William Bris- 
tol (Tolerationist) to act as joint committee with 



482 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

several gentlemen selected by the House. The 
joint committee reported that " the present was 
a period peculiarly auspicious for carrying into 
effect the wishes of our fellow-citizens, — the gen- 
eral desire for a revision and reformation of the 
structure of our civil government and the estab- 
lishment of a Constitutional Compact " and " that 
the organization of the different branches of gov- 
ernment, the separation of their powers, the tenure 
of office, the elective franchise, liberty of speech 
and of the press, freedom of conscience, trial by 
jury, rights which relate to these deeply interesting 
subjects, ought not to be suffered to rest on the frail 
foundation of legislative will." ^^^ Immediately, 
the House passed a bill requiring the freemen of 
the towns to assemble in town meeting on the fol- 
lowing Fourth of July " to elect by ballot as many 
delegates as said towns now choose representatives 
to the General Assembly," said delegates to meet 
in constitutional convention at Hartford on the 
fourth Wednesday of the following August (Aug. 
26) for " the formation of a Constitution of 
Civil Government for the people of this state." 
The bill further declared that the constitution 
when " ratified by such majority of the said 
qualified voters, convened as aforesaid, as shall be 
directed by said convention, shall be and remain 
the Supreme Law of this State." An attempt 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 483 

was made to substitute " one delegate " for 
" as many delegates " as the towns sent. Upon 
the question in the convention, as to what mar 
jority should be required for ratification, there 
was considerable diversity of opinion. " Two- 
thirds of the whole number of towns " was sug- 
gested, but was opposed on the ground that " two- 
thirds of the whole number of the towns might 
not contain one-fourth of the people." " Three- 
fifths of the legal voters of the state " was also 
suggested. In the final decision, the simple " ma- 
jority of the freemen " was accepted. Had this 
not been the case, the constitution would have 
failed of ratification, for, as Burlington made no 
returns, the vote stood 59 out of 120 towns for 
ratification, with 13,918 yeas to 12,364 nays, 
giving a majority of but 1554. /6>S^ ^^>t>t usu:l^^ ^^_^^J^^> 

Several causes tended to bring about an eager, 
an amiable, or tolerant support of the work of 
the convention. Republicans and Tolerationists 
hoped for sweeping reforms. The Federalists 
were divided. Many there were who believed it 
dangerous for the state to continue destitute of 
fundamental laws defining and limiting the 
powers of the legislature, and to such as these 
the need of a bill of rights, and of the separation 
of the powers of the government, was immediate 
and imperative. The influential faction of the 



484 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

New Haven Federalists were moved to modify 
any opposition existing among them by the pro- 
posed change to annual sessions of the legisla- 
ture with alternate sittings in the two capitals. 
There were still other Federalists who accepted 
the proposed change in government as inevita- 
ble, and who wisely forebore to block it, prefer- 
ring to use all their influence toward saving as 
much as possible of the old institutions under 
new forms. And in this resolve they were en- 
couraged by the high character of the men that 
all parties chose as delegates to the constitutional 
convention. 

The convention met August 26, 1818^ at Hart- 
ford. Governor Wolcott, one of the delegates 
from Litchfield, was elected president, and Mr. 
James Lanman, secretary. Mr. Pierpont Edwards 
was chosen chairman of a committee of three 
from each county to draft a constitution. The 
estimated strength of the parties was one hun- 
dred and five Republicans to ninety-five Federal- 
ists, and, of the drafting committee, five mem- 
bers belonged to the political minority." An 
idea of the character of the men chosen for this 



« Messrs. Pitkin, Todd, G. Lamed, Pettibone, and Wiley. Of 
these, the first had been twenty times state representative, five 
times speaker of the House, and for thirteen years had been 
representative in Congress. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 485 

important task of framing a new constitution is 
gained from a glance at some of the names. To 
begin with, over thirty-nine of the delegates to 
the convention either were Yale alumni or held 
its honorary degrees, and half of the drafting 
committee were her graduates. Ex-Governor 
Treadwell and Alexander Wolcott led the op- 
posing parties, while their able seconds in com- 
mand were General Nathaniel Terry of Hartford 
and Pierpont Edwards of New Haven. The latter 
still held the office of judge of the United States 
District Court, to which Jefferson had appointed 
him. Among the delegates, there were Mr. Amasa 
Learned, formerly representative in Congress, 
the ex-chief-judges Jesse Root and Stephen Mix 
Mitchell, Aaron Austin, a member of the Coun- 
cil for over twenty years until the party elec- 
tions of 1818 unseated him, ex-Governor John 
Treadwell, and Lemuel Sanford, — all of whom 
had been delegates to the convention of 1788, 
called to ratify the constitution of the ' United 
States. Five members of the drafting committee 
were state senators, namely : Messrs. William 
Bristol, Sylvester Wells, James Lanman,Dr. John 
S. Peters of Hebron, and Peter Webb of Wind- 
ham. Five others, Messrs. Elisha Phelps, Gideon 
Tomlinson, James Stevens, Orange Merwin, and 
Daniel Burrows were afterwards elected to that 



486 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

office, while Gideon Tomlinson and Jolin S. 
Peters became in turn governors of the state. 
James Lanman, Nathan Smith (a member also 
of the committee), and Tomlinson entered the 
national Senate. Among the delegates, there 
were nearly a dozen well-known physicians, most 
of them to be found among the Tolerationists. 
Messrs. Webb, Christopher Manwaring of New 
London, Gideon Tomlinson of Fairfield, and 
General Joshua King of Ridgefield, together 
with Joshua Stow of Middletown (also on the 
drafting committee), had been for years the war- 
horses of the democracy, loyal followers of their 
leader Alexander Wolcott, who had been the Re- 
publican state manager from 1800 to 1817. 

The method of procedure in the convention 
was to report from time to time a portion of the 
draft of the constitution, of which each article 
was considered section by section, discussed, and 
amended. After each of the several sections had 
been so considered, the whole article was opened 
to amencjment before the vote upon its acceptance 
was taken. When all articles had been approved, 
the constitution was printed as so far accepted, 
and was again submitted to revision and amend- 
ment before receiving the final approval of the 
convention. 

While the constitutional convention was in 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 487 

session, the Baptists and Methodists resolved that 
no constitution of civil government should receive 
their approbation and support unless it contained 
a provision that should secure the full and com- 
plete enjoyment of religious liberty .^^^ And it was 
known that the Episcopalians were ready to sec- 
ond such resolutions. These expressions of opinion 
were of weight as foreshadowing the kind of re- 
ception that many of the towns where the dis- 
senters were in the ascendant would accord any 
constitution sent to them for ratification. 

In the convention both the old Federal leader 
and the old Democratic chief objected to the in- 
corporation in the constitution of a bill of rights. 
Governor Treadwell opposed it on the ground 
that such " unalterable " regulations were un- 
necessary where, as in a republic, all power was 
vested in the people. Alexander Wolcott objected 
that such a " bill would circumscribe the powers 
of the General Assembly" and also because of 
his disapproval of some of its clauses.216 When 
the draft of fourth section was under discussion, 
namely that " No preference shall be given by 
law to any religious sect or mode of worship," 
the Rev. Asahel Morse, a Baptist minister, offered 
the substitute, — 

That rights of conscience are inalienable, that all 
persons have a natural right to worship Almighty God 



488 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

according to their own consciences; and no person 
shall be compelled to attend any place of worship, or 
contribute to the support of any minister, contrary to 
his own choice. 

The substitute was rejected, and after some dis- 
cussion, the wording of the section was changed 
by substituting '' Christian " in place of " reli- 
gious " and this change retained in the final 
revision." 

" The first seven sections of the Bill of Rights according to 
the final revision are : — 

Sec. 1. That all men when they form a social compact, are 
equal in rights ; and that no man, or set of men are entitled to 
exclusive public emoluments or privileges from the community. 

Sec. 2. That all political power is inherent in the people, and 
all free governments are founded on their authority, and in- 
stituted for their benefit ; and that they have, at all times, an 
undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of gov- 
ernment, in such a manner as they may think expedient. 

Sec. 3. The exercise and enjoyment of religious profession 
and worship, without discrimination, shall forever be free to all 
persons in this state ; provided, that the right, hereby declared 
and established, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of 
licentiousness, or to justify practices inconsistent with the peace 
and safety of the state. 

Sec. 4. No preference shall be given by law to any Christian 
sect or mode of worship. 

See. 5. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish 
his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse 
of that liberty. 

Sec. 6. No law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain the 
liberty of speech or of the press. 

Sec. 7. In all prosecutions or indictments for libels, the truth 
may be given in evidence ; and the jury, shall have the right 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 489 

The seventh article, " Of Religion," was the 
subject of a long and earnest debate. 

Sec. 1. It being the right and duty of aU men to 
worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and 
Preserver of the universe, in the mode most consistent 
with the dictates of their own consciences ; no person 
shall be compelled to join or support, nor by law be 
classed with or associated to any congregation, church 
or religious association. And each and every society 
or denomination of Christians in this State, shall have 
and enjoy the same and equal powers, rights and priv- 
ileges ; and shall have power and authority to sup- 
port and maintain the Ministers or Teachers of their 
respective denominations, and to build and repair 
houses for public worship, by a tax on the members of 
the respective societies only, or in any other manner. 

Sec. 2. If any person shall choose to separate him- 
self from the society or denomination of Christians 
to which he may belong, and shall leave written notice 
thereof with the Clerk of such society he shall there- 
upon be no longer liable for any future expenses, 
which may be incurred by said society. 

The Federalists contested its passage at every 
point, and succeeded in modifying the first draft 
in important particulars, but could not prevent 
complete severance of Church and State, nor the 
constitutional guarantee to all denominations of 

to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the 
court. 



490 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

religious liberty and perfect equality before the 
law. To the first clause as reported — " It being 
the right and duty of all men to worship the 
Supreme Being, the Great Creator and Preserver 
of the Universe, in the mode most consistent with 
the dictates of their consciences" — Governor 
Treadwell objected that " Conscience may be per- 
verted, and man may thmk it his duty to worship 
his Creator by image, or as the Greeks and Ro- 
mans did ; and though he would tolerate all 
modes of worship, he would not recognize it in 
the Constitution, as the duty of a person to wor- 
ship as the heathen do." Mr.Tomlinson afterwards 
moved to amend the clause to its present shape, 
" The duty of all men to worship . . . and their 
right to render that worship." Governor Tread- 
well objected that the same clause went " to dis- 
solve all ecclesiastical societies in this State." 
That was probably its intent. as Messrs. Joshua 
Stow and Gideon Tomlinson had drafted it. The 
former answered all objections by asserting that 
" if this section is altered in any way^ it will cur- 
tail the great principles for which we contend." ° 

" Mr. Trumbull asserts that " writers and historians are in 
error when attributing to Mr. Morse of Suffield (the Baptist 
minister aforementioned) the drafting of the Article on Reli- 
gious Liberty. The drafting committee were Messrs. Tomlinson 
and Stow, and the first clause, as reported, seems to have been 
taken with slight alteration from Governor Wolcott's speech 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 491 

The first section was finally adopted by a vote 
of 103 to 86, while a motion to strike out the 
second section was rejected by 105 to 84. On its 
final revision it read : — 

Sec. 1. It being the duty of all men to worship 
the Supreme Being, the Great Creator and Preserver 
of the Universe, and their right to render that wor- 
ship in the mode most consistent with the dictates of 
their consciences ; no person shall, by law, be compelled 
to join or support, nor be classed with, or associated 
to, any congregation, church, or religious association. 
But every person now belonging to such congregation, 
church, or religious association, shall remain a member 
thereof, until he shall have separated himself there- 
from, in the manner hereinafter provided. And each 
and every society or denomination of Christians, in 
this state, shall have and enjoy the same and equal 
powers, rights and privileges ; and shall have power 
and authority to support and maintain the ministers 
or teachers of their respective denominations, and to 
build and repair houses for public worship, by a tax 
on the members of any such society only, to be laid 
by a major vote of the legal voters assembled at any 
such society meeting, warned and held according to 
law, or in any other manner." 

to the General Assembly, May, 1817, namely, ' It is the right 
and duty of every man publicly and privately to worship and 
adore the Supreme Creator and Preserver of the Universe in the 
manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.' " 
— J. H. Trumbull, Notes on the Constitution, pp. 56, 57. 
" The second section remained unchanged. 



492 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

During the last revision of tlie constitution 
Mr. Terry had offered the two amendments that 
continue the old ecclesiastical societies as cor- 
porate bodies. 217 

The draft of the whole constitution was read 
through for the last time as amended and ready 
for acceptance or rejection, and put to vote on 
September 15, 1818. It was passed by 134 yeas 
to 61 nays. The constitution then went before 
the people for their consideration " and ratifica- 
tion. For a while its fate seemed doubtful ; 
but by the loyalty of the Federal members of 
the convention and their efforts in their own 
districts the whole state gave a majority for rat- 
ification. The southern counties, with a vote of 
11,181, gave a majority for ratification of 2843 ; 
the northern counties, with a vote of 15,101, 
gave a majority against ratification of 1189.^18 

The Toleration party as such had triumphed, 
and they felt that they had won all they had 
promised the people, for they had secured " the 
same and equal powers, rights and privileges to 
all denominations of Christians." They had also 
cleared the way for a broader suffrage and for 
the proper election laws to guarantee it. At the 
last two elections the Republicans in the Tol- 
eration party had carefully separated state and 
« Seven hundred copies were distributed among the towns. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 493 

national issues, and had in large measure forborne 
from criticism of the partisan government, in- 
sisting that the people's decision at the polls 
would give them — the people — rather than any 
political party, the power to correct existing 
abuses. The Republicans also insisted that the 
Tolerationists, no matter what their previous 
party affiliation, would with one accord obey the 
behests of the sovereign people. But when the 
constitution was an assured fact the Republicans 
felt that the Federalist influence had dominated 
the convention, and the Federalists that alto- 
gether too much had been accorded to the radical 
party. Nevertheless it was the loyalty of the 
Federal members of the convention that won 
the small majority for the Tolerationists and 
for the new constitution, even if that loyalty was 
founded upon the belief, held by many, that the 
choice of evils lay in voting for the new regime. 

The constitution of 1818 was modeled on the 
old charter, and retained much that was useful 
in the earlier instrument. The more important 
changes were: (1) The clearer definition and 
better distribution of the powers of government. 
(2) Rights of suffrage were established upon 
personal qualifications, and election laws were 
guaranteed to be so modified that voting should 
be convenient and expeditious, and its returns 



494 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS 

correct. (3) The courts were reorganized, and 
the number of judges was reduced nearly one 
half, while the terms of those in higher courts 
were made to depend upon an age limit (that oi 
seventy years), efficiency, and good behavior. 
Their removal could be only upon impeachment 
or upon the request of at least two thirds of the 
members of each house. Judges of the lower 
courts, justices of the peace, were still to be ap- 
pointed annually by the legislature, and to it the 
appointment of the sheriffs was transferred.*^ (4) 
Amendments to the constitution were provided 
for. (5) Annual elections and annual sessions of 
the legislature, alternating between Hartford and 
New Haven, were arranged for, and by this one 
change alone the state was saved a yearly ex- 
pense estimated at $14,000, a large sum in those 
days. (6) The governor* was given the veto 

^ By later amendments, judges of the Supreme Court of 
Errors and the Superior Court are nominated by the governor 
and appointed by the General Assembly. Judges of probate 
are now elected by the electors in their respective districts ; 
justices of the peace in the several towns by the electors in 
said towns ; and sheriffs by their counties. 

^ By amendment of 1901, the vote for governor, lieutenant- 
governor, secretary, treasurer, comptroller, and attorney-gen- 
eral was changed from a majority to a plurality vote, the 
Assembly to decide between candidates, if at any time two 
or more should receive "an equal and the greatest number" 
of votes. 



LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 495 

power, although a simple majority of the legisla- 
ture could override it. (7) The salaries of the 
governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, and re- 
presentatives were fixed by statute, and were not 
alterable to affect the incumbent during his term 
of office. (8) And finally, the union of Church 
and State was dissolved^ and all religious bodies 
were placed upon a basis of voluntary support. 

Among the minor changes, the law that before 
the constitution of 1818 had conferred the right 
of marrying people upon the located ministers 
and magistrates only, thereby practically exclud- 
ing Baptist, Methodist and Universalist clergy, 
now extended it to these latter. While formerly 
the only literary institution favored was Yale 
CoUege, Trinity College, despite a strong oppo- 
sition, was soon given its charter, and one was 
granted later to the Methodists for Wesleyan 
College at Middletown. Moreover, the govern- 
ment appropriated to both institutions a small 
grant. The teaching of the catechism, previously 
enforced by law in every school, became optional. 
Soon a normal school, free to all within the state, 
was opened. The support of religion was left 
wholly to voluntary contributions.^ The political 

<* " It cut the churches loose from dependence upon state 
support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on 
God." " The mass is changing'," wrote Dr. Beecher. "We are 



496 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT 

influence of the Congregational clergy was gone. 
" The lower magistracy was distributed as equally 
as possible among the various political and re- 
ligious interests," and the higher courts were 
composed of judges of different political opinions. 
The battle for religious liberty was won, Church 
and State divorced, politics and religion torn 
asunder. The day of complete religious liberty 
had dawned in Connecticut, and in a few years 
the strongest supporters of the old system would 
acknowledge the superiority of the new. As the 
" old order changed, yielding place to new," many 
were doubtful, many were fearful, and many 
there were who in after years, as they looked 
backward, would have expressed themselves in 
the frank words of one of their noblest leaders : " 
" For several days, I suffered what no tongue can 
tell for the best thing that ever happened to the 
State of Connecticut.'^'' 

becoming- another people. The old laws answered when all 
men in a parish were of one faith." — Lyman Beecher, Auto- 
biography, i, pp. 344, 453. 
« Lyman Beecher. 



APPENDIX 



NOTES 

Chapter I. The Evolution of Early Congrega- 
tionalism. 

1, p. 3. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Lit- 
erature, p. 49. 

2, p. 8. Robert Browne, A True and Short Declaration, 

P.l. 

3, p. 9. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Lit- 
erature, p. 70. 

4, p. 11. Report of Conference April 3, 1590, quoted in 
F. J. Powicke, Henry Barrowe, p. 54. 

6, p. 13. W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 12. 

6, p. 13. Ibid., pp. 14, 15 ; also H. M. Dexter, Congrega- 
tionalism as seen in Literature, pp. 96-104. 

7, p. 13. Robert Browne, A Treatise on Reformation with- 
out Tarrying, pp. 4, 7, 12. 

8, p. 13. Robert Browne, A True and Short Declaration, 
p. 7 ; Book which Sheweth, pp. 117-148. 

9, p. 13. Robert Browne, Book which Sheweth, Questions 
55-58. 

10, p. 15. Ibid., Def. 35-40; Henry Barrowe, Discovery 
of False Churches, p. 34, and The True Description in 
Appendix IV of F. J. Powicke's Henry Barrowe. 

11, p. 15. Robert Browne, Book which Sheweth, Def. 53 
and 54. 

12, p. 16. Henry Barrowe, Discovery of False Churches, 
p. 48. 

13, p. 19. Henry Barrowe, Discovery of False Churches, 
pp. 166, 275; Robert Browne, Book which Sheweth, 
Def. 51; A True and Short Declaration, p. 20; The 
True Confession of Faith, Article 38. 

14, p. 21. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in 



500 NOTES 

Literature, pp. 221, 232 ; also John Brown, Pilgrim 
Fathers of New England, pp. 22-25. 

15, p. 32. The True Confession, Art. 39. 

16, p. 33. " The Seven Articles," of which the following 
is the text: — 

(1) " To ye confession of fayth published in ye name of y* Church 
of England and to every artikell thereof wee do w* ye reformed 
churches wheer wee live & also els where assent wholly." 

(2) " And as wee do acknowlidg ye doctryne of fayth theer 
tawght so do wee ye fruites and effeckts of ye same docktryne to 
ye begetting of saving fayth in thousands in ye land (conformistes 
& ref ormistes) as ye ar called w'^ whom also as w** our brethren 
wee do desyer to keepe speirtuall communion in peace and will 
pracktis in our parts all lawful thinges." 

(3) " The King's Majesty wee acknowlidg for Supreme Gover- 
nor in his dominion in all causes, and over all parsons [persons] 
and yt uone maye decklyne or apeale his authority or judgment in 
any cause whatsoever, but y' in all thinges obedience is dewe unto 
him, either active, if ye thing commanded be not against God's 
woord, or passive yf itt bee, except pardon can bee obtayned." 

(4) " Wee judge itt lawfull for his Majesty to apoynt bishops, 
civill overseers, or officers in awthoryty onder hime in ye sever- 
all provinces, dieses, congregations or parishes, to oversee ye 
churches, and governe them civilly according to ye Lawes of ye 
Land, untto whom ye ar in all thinges to geve an account and by 
them to bee ordered according to Godlyness." (This is not an 
acknowledgment of spiritual superiority or authority, only the 
recognition that as church officers were also magistrates, the 
king could appoint them as his civil servants.) 

(5) "The authority of ye present bishops in ye land wee do 
acknowlidg so far forth as ye same is indeed derived from his 
Majesty untto them and as ye proseed in his name, whom wee 
will also therein honor in all thinges and hime in them." 

(6) " Wee believe y* no sinod, classes, convocation or assembly 
of Ecclesiastical Officers hath any power or awthority att all but 
y^ same by ye Majestraet given unto them." (Intended to be a 
denial of Presbyterianism.) 

(7) " Lastly wee desyer to geve untto all Superiors dew honour 
to preserve y* unity of ye spiritt w^^ all y' feare God to have 
peace w*'^ all men what in us lyeth and wherein wee err to bee 
instructed by any." (Text of Points of Difference and Seven 
Articles in W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, pp. 75-93.) 

Chapter II. The Transplanting of Congregation- 
alism. 

17, p. 45. The Commons prayed, " that no man hereafter 
be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevo- 



NOTES 501 

lence, tax, or such like charge, without common con- 
sent by Act of Parliament. And that none be called to 
make answer, or to take such oaths, or to be confined 
or otherwise molested or disputed concerning the same, 
or for refusal thereof. And that no freeman may in 
such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or 
detained." — Extract from the Petition of Right. See 
J. R. Green, Short History of the English People, pp. 
486, 487. 

18, p. 45. E. H. Byington, The Puritan in England and 
New England, pp. 486, 487. 

19, p. 54. See Gott's Letter in Bradford's Letter-Book, 
Mass. Hist. Soc, iii, 67,68. 

20, p. 54. G. L. Walker, History of the First Church in 
Hartford, p. 154. 

Chapter III. Church and State in New England. 

21, p. 60. Thomas Hooker, Survey of Church Discipline, 
chap. 3, p. 75; also Mass. Col. Rec, iii, 424; J. Cotton, 
Way of the Churches, pp. 6, 7. 

22, p. 60. J. Cotton, Way of the Churches, pp. 6, 7; Plym- 
outh Col. Rec, ii, 67; Mass. Col. Rec, i, 216, iii, 354; 
Hartford Town Voter, in Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., vi, 32; 
Conn. Col. Rec, i, 311, 545. 

23, p. 62. Plymouth Col. Laws, ed. 1836, p. 258; Conn. 
Col. Rec, i, pp. 96, 138, 290; 331, 389, 525. 

24, p. 65. J. Cotton, A Discourse about Civil Government 
in a New Plantation whose Design is Religion (written 
many years since), London, 1643, pp. 12, 19. (This is 
a misprint in the title-page, for the author was John 
Davenport.) 

25, p. 65. Mass. Col. Rec, i, 87. 

26, p. 66. J. Cotton, Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, pp. 
50, 53. 

27, p. 66. Mass. Law of 1636; Conn. Col. Rec, i, 341. , 

28, p. 66. Conn. Col. Rec, i, 525. 

29, p. 67. G. F. Ellis, Puritan Age in Massachusetts, p. 34. 

30, p. 68. Winthrop, i, 81. 

31, p. 69. Mass. Col. Rec, i, 142. 



502 NOTES 

32, p. 71. Winthrop, i, 287; H. M. Dexter, Ecclesiastical 
Councils of New England, p. 31. 

33, p. 71. J. A. Doyle, Puritan Colonies, ii, 70. 

Chapter IV. The Cambridge Platform and the 
Half- Way Covenant. 

34, p. 79. C. Mather, Magnalia, ii, 277. 

35, p. 80. Horace Bushnell, in Discourse on Christian Nur- 
ture, p. 25. 

36, p. 96. Cotton Mather, Magnalia, ii, 179. 

37, p. 104. Results of Half- Way Covenant Convention, 
Prop. 4. See W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 296. 

38, p. 104. W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 295. See 
Question 7, of Results. 

39, p. 110. Conn. Col. Rec, i, 386, 426. 

40, p. 111. Conn. State Papers (Ecclesiastical), vol. i. Doc. 
106. Quoted in the Church Review and Ecclesiastical 
Register, x, p. 116. 

41, p. 112. Beardsley, Hist, of the Church in Connecticut, 
i, 101 ; Perry, Hist, of Epis. Church in the United States, 
i, 283, 284. 

42, p. 113. Conn. Col. Rec, i, 437, 438. 

43, p. 114. G. L. Walker, Hist, of First Church in Hart- 
ford, p. 200. 

44, p. 115. Record of the United Colonies, i, 506. 

45, p. 118. G. L. Walker, Hist, of First Church in Hart- 
ford, p. 209. 

46, p. 119. L. Bacon, Contr. to Eccl. Hist, of Connecticut, 
p. 29. 

47, p. 119. E. Stiles, Christian Union, p. 85; J. A. Doyle, 
Puritan Colonies, ii, 69; Conn. Col. Rec, i, 545; ii, 290 
and 557. 

48, p. 119. Conn. Col. Rec, vii, 33; viii, 74. 

Chapter V. A Period of Transition. 

49, p. 123. Thomas Prince, Christian History, i, 94. 

50, p. 126. Preface to Work of the Reforming Synod. 

61, p. 126. C. Mather, Magnalia, Book v, p. 40. 

62, p. 130. C. Mather, Ratio Disciplinse, p. 17. 



NOTES 503 

53, p. 132. C. M. Andrews, Three River Towns, p. 86. See 
also Bronson, Early Government, in New Haven Hist. 
Soc. Papers, iii, 315; Conn. Col. Rec, 290-293, 321, 
354. 

54, p. 136. Conn. Col. Rec, v, 67. 

55, p. 136. L. Bacon, Contr. to Eccl. History, p. 33. 

56, p. 137. Conn. Col. Rec, v, 87. 

Chapter VI. The Saybrook Platform. 

57, p. 141. Saybrook Platform. 

58, p. 143. L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, pp. 
190, 191. 

59, p. 144. S. Stoddard, Instituted Churches, p. 29. 

60, p. 144. Trumbull, Hist, of Connecticut, i, 406; T. Clap, 
Hist, of Yale College, p. 30. 

61, p. 145. Trumbull, Hist, of Connecticut, i, 406. 

62, p. 145. L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, p. 
190. 

63, p. 146. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in 
Literature, pp. 489, 490. 

64, p. 147. Conn. Col. Rec, v, 87. 

65, p. 149. Ibid., V, 50. 

66, p. 152. A. Johnston, Connecticut, p. 232. 

Chapter VII. The Saybrook Platform and the 
Toleration Act. 

67, p. 163. John Bolles, A Relation of the Opposition some 
Baptist People met at Norwich in 1761. 

68, p. 164. Ibid., p. 7. 

69, p. 166. Quaker Laws. The New Haven Laws against 
Quakers deal thus fiercely : — 

" Whereas there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in 
the world, which are commonly called Quakers, who take upon 
them that they are immediately sent of God and infallibly 
assisted by his spirit, who yet write and speak blasphemous 
opinions, despise governments and the order of God, in church 
and commonwealth ... we do hereby order and declare 

" That whosoever shall hereafter bring, or cause to be brought, 
directly or indirectly, any known Quaker or Quakers, or other 
blasphemous heretics, into this jurisdiction, every such person 
shall forfeit the sum of 500 pounds to the jurisdiction, except it 



504 NOTES 

appear that he wanted true knowledge or information of their 
being such . , . and it is hereby ordered that what Quaker or 
Quakers soever come into this jurisdiction, from foreign parts or 
places adjacent, if it be about their civil, lawful occasions to be 
quickly despatched among us, which time of stay shall be limited 
by the civil authority in each plantation, and that they shall not 
use any means by words, writings, books, or any other way, to go 
about to seduce others, nor revile nor reproach, nor any other 
way make disturbance or offend. They shall upon their first 
arrival, or coming in, appear to be brought before the authorities 
of the place and from them have license to put about and issue 
their lawful occasions, and shall have one or more to attend upon 
them at their charge until such occasions of theirs be discharged, 
and they return out of the jurisdiction which if they refuse to do, 
they shall be denied such free passage and commerce and be 
caused to return back again, but if this first time they shall ofEend 
in any of the ways as before expressed, and contrary to the 
intent of this law, they shall be committed to prison, severely 
whipped, kept to work, and none suffered to converse with them 
during their imprisonment, which shall be no longer than neces- 
sity requires, and at their own charge sent out of the jurisdiction." 

For a second offense, they were to be branded, as well as to be 
committed to prison. For a fourth offense, they were to have 
their tongues bored through with hot irons. Their books, papers, 
etc., were to subject their possessors to a fine of 5 pounds, and en- 
tertaining or concealing a Quaker was to be punished by a fine of 
20s. ; while undertaking to defend any of their heretical opinions 
was doubly fined. — New Haven Col. Eec, ii, 217, 238, 363. 

In 1656, the Connecticut Court, in conformity to a suggestion 
from the commissioners of the United Colonies, ordered that " no 
towne within this jurisdiction shall entertaine any Quakers, 
Kanters, Adamites, or such notorious heretiques, or suffer them 
to continue with them above the space of fourteen days, . . . and 
shall give notice to the two next towns to send them on their 
way under penalty of £5 per week for any town entertaining any 
such person, nor shall any master of a ship land such or any." 
In August, 1657, the above fine was imposed on the individual 
who entertained the Quaker, etc., as well as on the town, and an 
officer was appointed to examine suspects. A little later, a 
penalty of lOs. was imposed for Quaker books and MSS. found in 
the possession of any but a teaching elder. Twice the Court saw 
fit to leave, notwithstanding all former orders, all such cases 
to the jurisdiction of the separate towns, to order fines, banish- 
ment, or corporal punishment, provided the fines " exceed not 
ten pounds." 

The tone is brief and businesslike, dealing with a matter that 
had already caused great trouble to the other United Colonies, 
and which might become a menace to Connecticut. There are 
almost no recorded cases of sentence being imposed. 

See Conn. Col. Rec, i, 283, 303, 308, 324. 



NOTES 505 

70, p. 166. J. Bowden, History of the Society of Friends, 
i, 104, quoting Norton's Ensign, p. 52. 

71, p. 167. Ibid., i, 106. 

72, p. 167. Ibid., i, 440. 

73, p. 170. R. P. Hallo well. The Pioneer Quakers, p. 47. 

74, p. 171. R. R. Hinman, Antiquities of the Charter 
Government of Connecticut, p. 229. 

75, p. 175. E. E. Beardsley, History of the Episcopal 
Church in Connecticut, i, 19. 

76, p. 175. A. L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate in the Ameri- 
can Colonies, pp. 33 et seq. 

77, p. 177. Ibid., p. 95, note. 

78, p. 177. C. F. Hawkins, Missions of the Church of Eng- 
land, 377, 378. 

79, p. 180. Church Documents, Conn., i, 14. 

80, p. 185. Ibid., i, 59. 

81, p. 186. Ibid., i, 136. 

Chapter VIII, The First Victory for Dissent. 

82, p. 194. Church Documents, Conn., i, 153. 

83, p. 197. Ibid., i, 56. 

84, p. 197. S. D. McConnell, History of the American 
Episcopal Church, p. 132. 

85, p. 201. Conn. Col. Rec, viii, 106 ; and Church Docu- 
ments, Conn., i, 280, 283. 

86, p. 202. Conn. Col. Rec, vii, 459, and viii, 123, 334. 

87, p. 205. Rogerine Laws. See Conn. Col. Rec, v. 248, 
249. 

88, p. 207. C. W. Bowen, The Boundary Disputes of 
Connecticut, especially pp. 48, 58, and 74. 

89, p. 207. The Talcott Papers, published in vols, iv and v 
of the Conn. Hist. Soc Collections. 

90, p. 209. Conn. Col. Rec, iv, 307. 

91, p. 210. Talcott Papers, i, 147, 189, and ii, 245, 246, 
in Conn. Hist. Soc Collections, vols, iv and v. 

92, p. 214. C. M. Andrews, The Connecticut Intestacy 
Law, in Yale Review, iii, 261 et seq. 

93, p. 216. Conn. Col. Rec, vii, 237. 

94, p. 217. Ibid., vii, 257. 



506 NOTES 

Chapter IX. The Great Awakening. 

95, p. 223. Jonathan Edwards' Works, iv, 306-324. 

96, p. 224o Ibid., iv, 81. 

97, p. 225. Lauer, Church and State, p. 77 ; also Conn. 
Col. Rec, vi, 33. 

98, p. 226. A. Johnston, Hist, of Conn., pp. 255, 256; also 
H. Bronson, Historical Account of Conn. Currency, in 
New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers, i, 51 et seq. 

99, p. 227. Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening, p. 13. 

100, p. 231. Edwards' Works, iv, 34-37. 

Chapter X. The Great Schism. 

101, p. 233. Conn. Col. Rec, vii, 309. 

102, p. 235. Ibid., viii, 522. 

103, p. 238. Charles Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts, p. 
249. 

104, p. 240. Conn. Col. Rec, viii, 438, 468 ; also Joseph 
Tracy, The Great Awakening, p. 303. 

105, p. 243. Conn. Col. Rec, viii, 454 et seq.; B. Trum- 
bull, Hist, of Connecticut, ii, 165; C. Chauncy, Season- 
able Thoughts, p. 41. 

106, p. 243. Conn. Col. Rec, viii, 456. 

107, p. 244. Ibid., viii, 456. 

108, p. 244. Ibid., viii, 457. 

109, p. 245. Trumbull, Hist, of Conn., ii, 135. 

110, p. 248. S. W. S. Button, Hist, of the North Church 
in New Haven. 

111, p. 248. E. D. Earned, Hist, of Windham County, vol. 
ii, book 5, chapter 3. 

112, p. 248. O. W. Means, Hist, of the Enfield Separate 
Church. 

113, p. 252. Conn. Col. Rec, October, 1751. 

114, p. 254. E. D. Earned, Hist, of Windham County, vol. 
ii, book 5, chapter 3. 

115, p. 255. Conn. Col. Rec, viii, 501. 

116, p. 255. Ibid., viii, 502. 

117, p. 256. E. D. Earned, Hist, of Windham County, 
ii, 417, 419, 425, 426 ; L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical 
Discourses, p. 245. 



NOTES 507 

118, p. 257. Solomon Paine's View, pp. 15, 16. 

119, p. 258. Thomas Clap, History of Yale, p. 27. 

120, p. 258. G. P. Fisher, Church of Christ in Yale Col- 
lege, app. 6. 

121, p. 260. E. D. Larned, History of Windham County, 
i, 425, 426. 

122, p. 261. S. L. Blake, The Separatists, pp. 183, 192. 
(This book gives the origin and end of every Separate 
church.) Also O. W. Means, History of the Enfield 
Separate Church. 

123, p. 262. Conn. Col. Rec, xii, 269, 341. 

124, p. 263. Ibid., viii, 507. 

125, p. 263. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i, 132, 
133. 

126, p. 267. W. C. Reichel, Dedication of Monuments 
erected by the Moravian Historical Societies in New 
York and Connecticut. 

G. H. Loskiel, Hist, of Missions of the United Breth- 
ren among the Indians of North America. 

J. Heckwelder, Missions of the United Brethren 
among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians, pp. 51 
et seq. 

127, p. 267. Conn. Col. Rec, ix, 218. 

128, p. 268. I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 80. 

129, p. 271. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in 
Literature, p. 503. 

Chapter XI. The Abrogation of the Saybrook 
Platform. 

130, p. 277. Frederick Dennison, Notes of the Baptists 
and their Principles in Norwich, Conn., p. 10. 

131, p. 278. Ibid., p. 16. 

132, p. 278. Stiles, Ancient Windsor, p. 439. 

133, p. 278. C. H. S. Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, pp. 164- 
210. 

134, p. 279. " To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in 
Council." (Quoted in Frederick Dennison, Notes of 
the Baptists.) 

135, p. 281. T. Clap, History of Yale, pp. 41-60. 



508 NOTES 

136, p. 286. Quoted by E. H. Gillett, Civil Liberty in 
Connecticut, Historical Magazine, 2d series, vol. iv. 

137, p. 287. E. D. Larned, History of Windham County, i, 
468. 

138, p. 289. Thomas Darling, Some Remarks, p. 6. 

139, p. 289. Ibid., p. 41. 

140, p. 290. Ibid., pp. 43, 46. 

141, p. 291. Robert Ross, Plain Address, p. 54. 

142, p. 293. E. Frothingham, Key to Unlock, p. 147. 

143, p. 294. Ibid., pp. 56, 58. 

144, p. 294. Ibid., pp. 51-53. 

145, p. 295. Ibid., p. 42. 

146, p. 296. Ibid., p. 156. 

147, p. 297. Ibid., p. 181. 

148, p. 305. Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial and Civil His- 
tory of Connecticut, p. 55. 

149, p. 311. M. C. Tyler, Literary History of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, i, 133. 

150, p. 312. Fulham, MSS. cited in A. L. Cross, Anglican 
Episcopate in the American Colonies, p. 115. See also 
pp. 122 et seq. and 332, 345. 

151, p. 318. A. L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate, pp. 164 
and 216. Perry, American Episcopal Church, i, 415. 

152, p. 319. Minutes of the Association, i, 3. 

153, p. 326. F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, p. 363. 

154, p. 328. Conn. Col. Rec, xiii, 360. 

155, p. 329. I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 340. 

156, p. 329. E. D. Larned, History of Windham County, 
ii, 103. 

157, p. 330. I. Backus, An Appeal to the Public for Reli- 
gious Liberty, Boston, 1773, p. 28. 

158, p. 330. Ibid., p. 13. 

159, p. 331. Ibid., pp. 43-48. 

160, p. 333. John Wise, Vindication, Edition of 1717, 
p. 84. 

161, p. 334. Public Records of the State of Connecticut, 
i, 232. 

162, p. 335. Quoted in E. H. Gillett, Civil Liberty in Con- 
necticut, Hist. Magazine, 1868. 



NOTES 509 

163, p. 336. I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 304. 

164, p. 336. Minutes of Hartford North Association. 

165, p. 338. I. Foster, Defense of Religious Liberty, pp. 
30, 32 ; also 135 and 142. 

166, p. 338. Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, 
1784, pp. 21, 22, 213, 235. 

Chapter XII. Connecticut at the Close of the 
Revolution. 

167, p. 346. P. K. Kilbourne, History of Litchfield, pp. 
166, 169. 

168, p. 346. James Morris, Statistical Account of the 
Towns of Litchfield County. 

169, p. 349. Judge Church, in his Litchfield County Cen- 
tennial Address. 

170, p. 349. J. D. Champlin, Jr., " Litchfield Hill." 

171, p. 350. Noah Webster, Collection of Essays (ed. of 
1790), p. 379. 

172, p. 351. Ibid., p. 338. 

173, p. 351. Ibid., p. 338. 

174, p. 353. Letter of Sept. 11, 1788, one of the series in 
answer to the quotations from Richard Price's " Obser- 
vations on the Importance of the American Revolu- 
tion." See American Mercury, Feb. 7, 1785. Con- 
necticut Journal, Feb. 16, and Connecticut Courant, 
Feb. 22, 1785. 

175, p. 355. James Schouler, History of the United 
States, i, 53. 

176, p. 360. Isaac Backus, The Liberal Support of the 
Gospel Minister, p. 35. 

177, p. 360. Report of Superintendent of Public Schools, 
1853, pp. 62, 63. 

178, p. 361. W. Walker, The Congregationalists, pp. 311 
et seq. 

179, p. 362. John Lewis, Christian Forbearance, p. 31. 

180, p. 363. E. Stiles, Diary, i, 21. 

181, p. 365. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in 
Literature, p. 523. 



510 NOTES 

Chapter XIII. Certificate Laws and Western 
Land Bills. 

182, p. 372. Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut 
(ed. of 1784), pp. 403, 404. 

183, p. 373. Courant, May 28, 1791. 

184, p. 374. Ibid., May 28, 1791. 

185, p. 376. J. Leland, High Flying Churchman, pp. 10, 
11, 16, 17. 

186, p. 376. Acts and Laws (ed. of 1784), p. 418. 

187, p. 378. Ibid., p. 417. 

188, p. 382. Cited from Keport of the Superintendent of 
Public Schools, 1853, p. 65. 

189, p. 385. The American Mercury, Feb. 24 and Apr. 
17, 1794. 

190, p. 388. J. Leland, A Blow at the Root, pp. 7, 8. 

191, p. 389. See Rep. of Supt. of Public Schools, 1853, 
pp. 74-95. 

192, p. 390. Ibid., pp. 101, 102. 

193, p. 390. Published in Courant of March 16, 23 and 
30, 1795. 

194, p. 390. See HoUister, Hist, of Connecticut, ii, 568- 
575; Report of Superintendent of Public Schools, 1853; 
Swift's System of Laws, i, 142 et seq. 

Chapter XIV. The Development of Political Par- 
ties IN Connecticut. 

195, p. 399. Wolcott Manuscript, in vol. iv. Library of 
Conn. Historical Society, Hartford, Conn. 

196, p. 403. Judge Church's Manuscript, deposited with 
New Haven Historical Society. 

197, p. 404. Swift, System of the Laws of Connecticut, 
i, 55-58. 

198, p. 408. Hollister, Hist, of Connecticut, ii, 510-514, 
quoting Judge Church. 

199, p. 412. D. G. Mitchell, American Lands and Let- 
ters, i, 142 ; F. B. Dexter, Hist, of Yale, p. 87. 

200, p. 414. Minutes of the General Association, Report 
of the Session of 1797. 



NOTES 511 

201, p. 425. A. Bishop, Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 32. 

202, p. 427. Connecticut Journal, April 30, 1816, quotes 
the Petition and reply. 

203, p. 430. J. Leland, Van Tromp lowering his Peak, p, 
33. 

204, p. 431. A. Bishop, Oration in Honor of the Election 
of JefEerson, pp. 9, 10, 11-16. 

205, p. 437. Judge Church's Manuscript. 

206, p. 438. Lyman Beecher, Autobiography, i, 257, 259, 
260, 342, 343. 

207, p. 450. Constitution of the United States, Article 
II, Sect, ii, 1; Art. I, Sect, viii, 15. For the corre- 
spondence between General Dearborn and Gov. J. C. 
Smith, see Niles' Register, viii, 209-212. 

208, p. 461. Hildreth, History of United States, vi, 319- 
325; Schouler, Hist, of United States, ii, 270. 

209, p. 463. Niles' Register, viii, 291; ix, 171; also Amer- 
ican Mercury of April 19, 1815. 

210, p. 464. New Haven Register, and also the American 
Mercury of Feb. 12, 1817. 

211, p. 467. Niles' Register, xi, 80. 

212, p. 475. Swift, System of Law, i, 74. 

213, p. 477. Swift, Vindication of the calling of the Spe- 
cial Superior Court, pp. 40^2. 

214, p. 482. Report of the Committee. See also J. H. 
Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 43-47. 

215, p. 487. Connecticut Courant of Aug. 25, 1818. 

216, p. 487. J. H. Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 55, 56. 

217, p. 492. Journal of the Convention, pp. 49, 67. (The 
Connecticut Courant and the American Mercury pub- 
lished the debates of the Convention in full as they 
occurred.) 

218, p. 492. Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 60. See also 
the text, preceding this note, p. 483. 

The Constitution of 1818, admirable for the conditions of that 
time, leaves now large room for betterment. The century-old 
habit of legislative interference was not wholly uprooted in 1818, 
and soon began to grow apace. The Constitution stands to-day 
with its original eleven articles and with thirty-one amendments, 



512 NOTES 

some of which, at least in their working, are directly opposed to 
the spirit of the framers of the commonwealth. The old cry of 
excessive legislative power is heard again, for the legislature by 
a majority of one may override the governor's veto, and, through 
its powers of confirmation and appointment, it may measurably 
control the executive department and the judicial. Moreover, 
apart from these defects in the constitution, certain economic 
changes have resulted in a disproportionate representation in the 
House of Representatives. The Joint-Stock Act of 1837 gave birth 
to great corporations, and with railroads soon developed the for- 
mation of large manufacturing plants. As a result, there was a 
rush, at first, of the native born, and, later, of large numbers of 
immigrants, who swelled the population, to the cities. This, to- 
gether with the development of the great grain-producing western 
states, changed Connecticut from an agricultural to a manufac- 
turing state, and from a producer of her own foodstuffs to a con- 
sumer of those which she must import from other states. 

Such shifting of the population has produced a condition where 
a bare majority of one in a House of two hundred and fifty-five 
members may pass a measure that really represents the senti- 
ment of but one-fifteenth of the voters of the state. There re- 
sults a system of rotten boroughs and the opportunity for a well- 
organized lobby and the moneyed control of votes. It is asserted 
that the first section of the bill of rights, namely, " That no man 
or set of men are entitled to exclusive public emoluments or priv- 
ileges from the community," is constantly violated by this mis- 
representation, which especially affects the population in the 
cities, and is felt not only in all state measures, but in all local 
ones about which the legislature must be consulted. As an illus- 
tration of the inequality of representation, the following figures 
are given. In the Constitutional Convention of 1818, 81 towns sent 
two delegates each, and 39 towns sent one from communities out 
of which 11 had a population of less than 1000, and 100 ranged 
between 1000 and 4000, while only 9 surpassed this last number. 
In the Constitutional Convention of 1902, 87 towns, with an aggre- 
gate population of 781,954, sent each ttvo delegates, while 81, with 
a combined population of 126,411, sent each one delegate. Thus 
it happened that in 1902, New Haven, population 108,027, sent two 
delegates, and the town of Union, population 428, also sent two 
delegates, while ten other towns, with a population ranging from 
593 to 885 each, sent two delegates. 

The " Standing Order " of to-day is not a privileged church, but 
a dominant political party strong in the privilege and powers 
derived from long tenure of office and intrenched behind consti- 
tutional amendments which, in addition to this unequal repre- 
sentation in the House, provide for the election of Senators 
upon town and county lines rather than upon population. The 
Constitutional Reform Party of to-day propose radical measures 
to remedy these more glaring defects in the administration of 
government, and to consider these, called the Constitutional Con- 



NOTES 513 

vention of 1902. In it, the influence of the small towns on the 
drafting of the proposed constitution was so great that, when it 
was presented to tiie people for ratification, an adverse majority 
in every county refused to accept it. In fact, only fifteen per 
cent of the whole people thought it worth while to express any 
opinion at all. 

Keferences for the Constitutional Convention of 1902 : Clarence 
Deming, Town Eule in Connecticut, Pohtical Science Quarterly, 
September, 1889 ; and M. B. Carey, The Connecticut Constitution. 
(These will be found useful as summing up much of the newspa- 
per discussion of the period, and also for the data upon which 
the argument for the desired changes is based.) There is also 
" The Constitutions of Connecticut, with Notes and Statistics re- 
garding Town Representation in the General Assembly, and 
Documents relating to the Constitutional Convention of 1902," 
printed by order of the Comptroller, Hartford, Conn. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A. HISTORIES 

1. General 

A few titles are given of those works found most useful in ac- 
quiring a general historic setting for the main topic. 

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. New 
York, 1889. 

Gardiner, S. R. History of England from Accession of 
James I. London, 1863. 

History of England under the Duke of Buckingham 

and Charles I. London, 1875. 

History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. 

London and New York, 1894^1903. 

Green, John Richard. Short History of the English Peo- 
ple. London, 1884. 

History of the English People. New York, 1880. 4 

vols., chiefly vol. iii. 

Hildreth, Richard. History of the United States to 1824. 
New York, 1887. 6 vols. 

McMaster, John Bach. A History of the People of the 
United States from the Revolution to the Civil War. 
New York, 1884-1900. 5 vols. 

Schouler, James. History of the United States of Amer- 
ica under the Constitution. Washington, Philadelphia, 
and New York, 1882-99. 6 vols. 

Tyler, Moses Coit. A History of American Literature, 
1607-1765. New York, 1879. 2 vols. 

The Literary History of the American Revolution, 

1763-1783. New York and London, 1897. 2 vols. 

Winsor, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of Amer- 
ica. Cambridge, 1886-89. 8 vols. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 515 



2. Special 

Adams, Henry. Documeuts relating to New England 

Federalism, 1800-1815. Boston, 1877. 
Adams, John. Works with a Life of the Author, Notes 

and Illustrations. (Ed. by Charles Francis Adams.) 

Boston, 1850-56. 10 vols. 
Arber, Edward. The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606- 

1623 A. D. as told by themselves, their Friends and their 

Enemies, edited from the original Texts. London, 1897. 
Barlow, Joel. Political Writings. New York, 1796. 
Bradford, William. History of "Plimoth" Plantation. 

Keprint from original MS. with report of proceedings 

incident to its return. Boston, 1898. 
Brown, John. The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and 

their Puritan Successors. London, 1895. Bevised Amer- 
ican ed. 1897." 
Byington, Ezra B. The Puritan in England and New 

England. Boston, 1897. 
Campbell, Douglas. The Puritans in Holland, England 

and America. New York, 1892. 2 vols. 
Cobb, Sanford H. Rise of Religious Liberty in America. 

New York and London, 1902. 

Pages 236-290 and 512-514 treat of Connecticut, while 454-482 
deal with the American Episcopate. 

Doyle, John Andrew. The English in America ; The 

Puritan Colonies. New York, 1889. 2 vols. 
Ellis, George E. The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony 

of Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1685. Boston and New 

York, 1888. 
Felt, Joseph Barton. The Ecclesiastical History of New 

England, comprising not only Religious but Moral and 

other Relations. Arranged chronologically and with 

index. Boston, 1855-62. 2 vols. 
Fish, Carl Russell. The Civil Service and the Patronage. 

New York, 1905. 

Pages 32-39, Jefferson's removal of Mr. Goodrich of New 
Haven. 

« This is the edition referred to in text. 



516 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Fiske, John. The Beginnings of New England; or, The 
Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Reli- 
gious Liberty. Boston and New York, 1880. 

Gardiner, S. R. The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan 
Revolution, 1603-1660. London, 1887. 

Goodwin, John Abbott. The Pilgrim Republic: An His- 
torical Review of the Colony of New Plymouth, with 
sketches of the Rise of other New England Settlements, 
the History of Congregationalism and the Creeds of 
the Period [New England to 1732]. Cambridge, 1895. 

Heckewelder, J. A Narrative of the Mission of the United 
Brethren among the Delaware and Mohigan Indians 
from 1740 to 1808. Philadelphia, 1820. 

Lauer, P. E. Church and State in New England. Balti- 
more, 1892. 
Also in Jotins Hopkins University Studies, Nos. 2 & 3. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot. A Short History of the English 
Colonies in America. New York, 1881. 

Love, Wm. De Loss, Jr. The Fasts and Thanksgiving 
Days of New England. Boston, 1895. 
Includes a bibliography. 

Loskiel, George H. History of the Missions of the United 
Brethren among the Indians in North America. Lon- 
don, 1794. 

Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The 
Ecclesiastical History of New England from its First 
Planting in the Year 1620 to the Year of our Lord 1698. 
Ed. London, 1702, — Hartford, 1820. 2 vols.« 
3d ed. with Introduction and occasional Notes by T. Robbins. 

Hartford, 1853, 2 vols. 

Mourt's Relation or Journal of a Plantation settled at 

Plymouth, in New England and proceedings Thereof. 

London, 1622. 

2d ed. Annotated by A. Young. Boston, 1841. Also found in 
Young's Chronicle of the Pilgrim Fathers. Boston, 1846 .« 

Reprint with illustrative cuts, George B. Cheever, Editor, New 
York, 1849. 

Reprint ed. by H. M. Dexter. Boston, 1865. (See vol. viii, 1st 

« This is the edition referred to in text. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 517 

series, Mass. Hist. Soc. Col., also Library of New England His- 
tory, vol. i.) 

Neal, Daniel. History of the Puritans, or Protestant Non- 
conformists : from the Reformation in 1517 to the death 
of Queen Elizabeth, with an Account of their principles : 
their Attempts for a further Reformation in the Church: 
their Sufferings, and the Lives and Characters of their 
considerable Divines, etc. London, 1732, 4 vols. Re- 
vised ed. London, 1837, 3 vols.« 

Palfrey, John G. Comprehensive History of New Eng- 
land. Boston, 1858-90. 5 vols. 

Prince, Thomas. A Chronological History of New Eng- 
land in the form of Annals. Boston, 1736. Edited by 
Drake with Memoir of the Author. Boston, 1852.<* 

Eeprint in Mass. Hist. Soc. Col., 2d series, vol. vii, 1818. New 
edition, edited by N. Hale. Boston, 1826. Found also in Arber's 
English Garner, vol. ii, 1879. 

Reichel, W. C. Memorial of the Dedication of Monu- 
ments erected by Moravian Historical Society to mark 
the sites of ancient missionary stations. Philadelphia, 
1858. 

Schaff, Philip. Religious Liberty. See American Histori- 
cal Society Annual Report, 1886-87. 

Thornton, J. Wingate. The Pulpit of the American Revo- 
lution. Boston, 1876. 

Weeden, William B. Economic and Social History of 
New England. Boston, 1890. 2 vols. 

Winthrop, John. History of New England, 1636-47, 
edited by James Savage. Boston, 1853. 2 vols. 

Wood, John (Cheetham, James). History of the Admin- 
istration of John Adams. New York, 1802. 

History of the Administration of J. Adams, with 

Notes. New York, 1846. 

3. Statistical 

Baird, Robert. Religion in America; or An Account of 
the Origin, Relation to the State and Present Coudi- 
o This is the edition referred to iu text 



618 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

tion of the Evangelic Churches in the United States. 
New York, 1856. 
Bishop, J. Leauder. A History of American Manufac- 
tures, 1608-1860. 1868. 3 vols. 

This iucludes a history of the origin and growth of the prin- 
cipal mechanical arts and manufactures : notice of important In- 
ventions ; results of each decennial census ; tariffs ; and statistics 
of manufacturing centres. It has a good index by which the in- 
dustrial history of each colony and state can be quickly traced. 

Bolles, Albert S. The Financial History of the United 

States. New York, 1879-86. 3 vols. 
Carroll, Henry King. Religious Forces in the United 

States, enumerated, classified and described on the 

basis of the Government Census of 1890. New York, 

1893. 
Dorchester, Daniel. Christianity in the United States 

from the first settlement down to the present time. 

New York and Cincinnati, 1888. 
Hayward, John. The Religious Creeds and Statistics of 

every Christian Denomination in the United States. 

Boston, 1836. 

4. Local 

Connecticut— State, county, town, etc., of which only the more 
important town and county histories, and reports of anniversary 
celebrations are given. Those omitted are of small interest out- 
side of their respective towns, except to genealogists or to those 
whose families chance to be mentioned in the sketch of historical 
development or of commercial growth. The many books of this 
type contribute general coloring, and some of them a few impor- 
tant bits of information, to the story of the development of the 
state, but many are not worth enumerating as sources, or as 
assistants to the general reader or student. 

Allen, Francis Olcott. The History of Enfield, compiled 
from all the public records of the town known to exist, 
covering from the beginning to 1850. Lancaster, 1900. 
3 vols. 

Carefully compiled and attested by the town clerk. Includes 
also graveyard inscriptions and extracts from Hartford, North- 
ampton and Springfield records. 

Andrews, Charles M. The River Towns of Connecti- 
cut, Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor. Baltimore, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 519 

1889. (Also Johns Hopkins Historical and Political 
Science Papers, vii, 341-456.) 
At water, Edward E. (editor). History of the City of 
New Haven. New York, 1887. 

Good for the earlier history, for a few extracts from records ; 
contains descriptions of pubhc men and events, also extracts 
from old newspapers, etc. 

History of the Colony of New Haven to its absorp- 
tion into Connecticut. New Haven, 1881. 

A much better hook, being the best special history of the New 
Haven Colony. 

Baldwin, Sinaeon E. Constitutional Reform. A Discus- 
sion of the Present Inequalities of Representatives in 
the General Assembly [of Connecticut]. New Haven, 
1873. 

The Early History of the Ballot in Connecticut. 

American Historical Association Papers, i, 407-422. 
New York, 1890. 

The Three Constitutions of Connecticut. In New 

Haven Historical Society Papers, vol. v. 

Barber, John W. Connecticut Historical Collections. 
New Haven, 1856. 

A book of brief anecdotal town histories, curious legends, no- 
table events, newspaper clippings, together with a goodly number 
of illustrations. 

BoUes, John Rogers. The Rogerenes : Some hitherto un- 
published annals belonging to the Colonial History of 
Connecticut. Part 1. A Vindication, by J. R. Bolles. 
Part 2. History of the Rogerenes, by Anna B. Wil- 
liams. Boston, 1904. 

Bowen, Clarence W. The Boundary Disputes of Con- 
necticut. Boston, 1882. 

Breekenridge, Francis A. Recollections of a New Eng- 
land Town (Meriden). Meriden, 1899. 
Typical of the life in New England towns, 1800-1850. 

Bronson, Henry. Early Government of Connecticut. 
(New Haven Historical Society Papers, iii, 293 et 
seq.) 



620 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bushnell, Horace. " Work and Play," being the first vol- 
ume of his " Literary Varieties." New York, 1881. 
Contains an historical estimate of Connecticut. 

Caulkins, Frances M. History of New London, Con- 
necticut. New London, 1852. 

History of Norwich, Connecticut. Norwich, 1845. 

These two histories are readable, reliable and full of detail, 
culled from original records, many of which are now deposited 
with the New London Historical Society. 

Clap, Thomas. Annals or History of Yale College. New 
Haven, 1766. 

Cothren, William. History of Ancient Woodbury, Con- 
necticut, 1669-1879. (Including Washington, South- 
bury, Bethlehem, Roxbury, and part of Oxford and 
Middlebury.) Waterbury, 1854, 1872, 1879. 3 vols. 

Vols, i and ii, history, with considerable genealogy. Vol. iii, 
1679-1879, births, marriages and deaths. 

Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Thomas Clap and his Writ- 
ings. See New Haven Historical Society Papers, vol. v. 

Sketch of the History of Yale University. New 

Haven, 1887. 

Dwight, Theodore. History of Connecticut. New York, 
1841. 

— — History of Hartford Convention. Hartford, 1833. 

Of the 447 pages, 340 are devoted to recounting the events 
which led to the calling of the convention, and, with much politi- 
cal bias, to the history of Jefferson's political career from 1789, 
quoting from official correspondence and his private letters. Pages 
340-422 deal with the convention proper, giving, pp. 383-400, its 
"Secret Journal." The Appendix, pp. 422-447, has brief bio- 
graphies of the members. 

Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New England and New 

York. New Haven, 1831. 4 vols. 
Dodd, Stephen. The East Haven Register in Three Parts. 

New Haven, 1824. 

A rare little book of 200 pages compiled by the pastor of the 
Congregational Church in East Haven. Part i contains a history 
of the town from 1640 to 1800; part ii, names, marriages, and 
births, 1644-1800 ; part iii, account of the deaths in families, from 
1647 to 1824. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 521 

Field, David Dudley. A History of the Towns of Haddam 
and East Haddam. Middletown, 1814. 

A book of some forty-eight pages, of which six are devoted to 
genealogies "taken partly from the records of the towns, and 
partly from the Information of aged people " by the pastor of the 
church in Haddam. Though largely ecclesiastical, its author — 
a college A. M. — realizes the value of statistics in references to 
population, necrology, taxes, mihtia, farming, and other indus- 
tries, and weaves them into his rambling story. 

Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex. 

Middletown, 1819. 
Fowler, William Chauncey. History of Durham, 1662- 

1866. 

Includes in chapter xii — pp. 229-443 — extracts from Town 
Kecords, Ministerial Records, Proprietor's Eecords. 

Gillett, E. H., Rev. The Development of Civil Liberty in 
Connecticut. In Historical Magazine, 2d series, vol. iv 
(1868), pp. 1-34, Appendices, pp. 34-49. Morrisania, 
N. Y., 1868. 

Appendix A. Eeport of the Eev. Elizur Goodrich, D. D., to the 
Convention of Delegates from the Synod of New York and Phila- 
delphia and from the Associations of Connecticut, held annually 
from 1766 to 1775 inclusive (being a statement on the subject of 
Religious Liberty in the Colony), with notes by E. H. G. pp. 34-43- 

Appendix B. Letter of Rev. Thomas Prince of Boston to Rev. 
John Drew of Groton, Conn., May 8, 1744, pp. 43-47. (Sympathizing 
with the New Lights.) 

Appendix C. Three short paragraphs omitted from the body of 
the article. 

Appendix D. Extracts from the American reprint of Graham's 
" Ecclesiastical Establishments of Europe," pp. 47, 48. 

This article in itself contains Israel Holly's " Memorial," 
Joseph Brown's " Letter to Infant Baptisers of North Parish in 
New London " (in part) ; also copious citations from the pam- 
phlets of Bolles, Frothingham, Bragge, the Autobiography of 
Billy Hibbard (Methodist preacher) and extracts from Abraham 
Bishop's pamphlets. 

Hartford Town Votes, 1635-1716. (Transcribed by 
Chas. J. Hoadly.) See Connecticut Historical Society 
Collections, 1897, vol. vi. 

Hollister, Gideon H. Address in Litchfield, April 9, 1856, 
before the Historical and Antiquarian Society, on the 



522 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

occasion of completing its organization. Hartford, 
1856. 
HoUister, Gideon H. The History of Connecticut. New 
Haven, 1855. 2 vols. 

A history of Connecticut from the first settlement of the colony 
to the adoption of the present Constitution in 1818. 

Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Fairfield County, Con- 
necticut, with illustrations and Biographical Sketches 
of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia, 
1881. 

Johnson, William Samuel. Letters to the Governors of 
Connecticut, 1766-1771. See Mass. Historical Society 
Collections, series 5, vol. ix, pp. 211-490. 

Johnston, Alexander. The Genesis of a New England 
State, Connecticut. Baltimore, 1883. Revised 1903. 
(Also in Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. i, 
no. 11.) 

Connecticut; a Study of a Commonwealth Democ- 
racy. Boston and New York, 1887. Revised 1903. 

Jones, Frederick R. History of Taxation in Connecticut. 
Johns Hopkins University Studies in Political Science, 
series 14, no. 8. Baltimore, 1896. 

Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of Dele- 
gates Convened at Hartford, August 26, 1818. Hart- 
ford, 1873. Reprinted by order of the state comp- 
troller, Hartford, 1901. 

Kilbourne, P. K. Sketches and Churches of the Town of 
Litchfield. Historical, biographical, statistical. Hart- 
ford, 1859. 

An excellent account, drawing in part upon Woodruff's (George 
C.) History of Litchfield, 1845, and Morris' Statistical Account of 
Litchfield County, 1818, with additional matter. 

Kingsley, F. J. Old Connecticut. See New Haven Histori- 
cal Society Papers, vol. iii. 

Kingsley, James Luce. Sketch of Yale College. Boston, 
1835. 

Lambert, Edward R. History of the Colony of New 
Haven, before and after the Union with Connecticut. 
New Haven. 1838. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 523 

Lamed, Ellen D. History of Windham County. Worces- 
ter, 1874. 2 vols. 

One of the best of the local histories. 

Vol. i, hook iii. Account of Canterbury Church difficulties and 
of the Clevelands. 

Historic Gleanings in Windham County, Connecti- 
cut. Providence, 1899. 

Levermore, Charles H. The Republic of New Haven. 
Also in Johns Hopkins University Studies, extra vol. i. 
Baltimore, 1886. 

Litchfield Book of Days, A collection of the historical, 
biographical and literary reminiscences of Litchfield, 
Connecticut. Edited by George C. Boswell. Litch- 
field, 1899. 

Litchfield County Centennial Celebration, August 13-14, 
1851. Hartford, 1851. 

Loomis (D wight) and Calhoun (J. Gilbert). The Judicial 
and Civil History of Connecticut. Boston, 1895. 

Orcutt, Samuel. History of New Milford and Bridge- 
water, Connecticut, '1703-1882. Hartford, 1882. 

History of Old Town of Derby. Springfield, 1880. 

" Prepared with great fidelity and thoroughness, and to take 
rank with the best town histories," wrote Noah Porter on Feb. 1, 
1880. Biography and Genealogy, pp. 523-785. 

History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City 

of Bridgeport. New Haven, 1886. 2 pts. 

The Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates from the 
states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, the 
Counties of Cheshire and Grafton in the State of New 
Hampshire and the County of Windham in the State 
of Vermont convened at Hartford in the State of Con- 
necticut, December 15, 1814. Hartford, 1815. 

Sanford, Elias B. A History of Connecticut. Hartford, 
1887. 
A school history. 

Selleck, Charles M. History of Norwalk. Norwich, 1886. 

Statistical Account of the Towns and Parishes in the 
State of Connecticut, published by Connecticut Acad- 



524 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

emy of Arts and Sciences, vol. i, no. 1. New HaVen, 
1811. 
Steiner, Bernard Christian. A History of the Plantation 
of Menunkatuck and of the Original Town of Guilford, 
Connecticut (present towns of Guilford and Madison) 
written largely from the manuscripts of The Hon. 
Ralph Dunning Smyth. Baltimore, 1897. 

The book draws upon the preceding histories of Guilford, 
namely that of the Rev. Thomas Buggies, Jr., and the later sketch 
of Guilford and Madison by Daniel Dudley Field, first written in 
1827 for the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was 
revised by E. D. Smyth In 1840 and published in 1877 after his 
death. Mr. Steiner has added matter derived from a study of the 
town records and other sources, making a history that covers 
all points of development. 

Governor William Leete and the absorption of 

New Haven by the Colony of Connecticut. American 
Historical Association, Annual Report, 1891, pp. 209- 
222. 

History of Slavery in Connecticut. (See Johns 

Hopkins Historical Studies, ii, 30 et seq.) Baltimore, 
1893. 

Stiles, Ezra. A Discourse on the Christian Union. Brook- 
field, 1799. 

The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, edited under the 

authority of the corporation of Yale University by 
F. B. Dexter, M. A. New York, 1901. 3 vols. 

Stiles, Henry Reed. Ancient Windsor. Hartford, 1891. 
2 vols. 

Swift, Zephaniah. System of the Laws of the State of 
Connecticut. Windham, 1795. 

Trumbull, Benjamin. A Complete History of Connecticut, 
Civil and Ecclesiastical, 1639 to 1713, continued to 
1764. New Haven, 1818. 2 vols. 

Reprint with Introductory Notes and Index by Jonathan 
Trumbull. New London, 1898. 

Trumbull, J. Hammond (Editor). Hartford County Me- 
morial History. Hartford, 1886. 2 vols. 

Vol. i, part i. The County of Hartford treated topically, as 
early history, the colonial period, "Bench and Bar," "Medical 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 525 

History," etc. Part ii, Hartford, Town and City. Vol. ii, Brief 
Histories of the different towns. 

Trumbull, J. Hammond. Historical Notes of the Consti- 
tutions of Connecticut, 1639 to 1818 ; and Progress of 
the Movement which resulted in the Convention of 
1818, and the Adoption of the present Constitution. 
Hartford, 1873. Reprinted by order of State Comp- 
troller, Hartford, 1901. 

Origin and Early Progress of Indian Missions in 

New England. Worcester, 1874. 

Defense of Stonington (Connecticut) against a Brit- 
ish Squadron. Hartford, 1864. 

The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New 

Haven and the False Blue Laws invented by the Rev. 
Samuel Peters. To which are added specimens of the 
Laws of other Colonies and some of the Blue Laws of 
England. Hartford, 1876. 

List of Books printed in Connecticut, 1709-1800 

(edited by his daughter Annie E. Trumbull). The list 
contains 1741 titles and also a list of printers. Hart- 
ford, 1904. 

Webster, Noah. Collection of Papers on Political, Liter- 
ary and Moral Subjects. New York, 1843. 

5. Local Biographies 

Bacon, Leonard. Sketch of Life and Public Services of 
James Hillhouse. New Haven, 1860. 

Blake, B. L. Gurdon Saltonstall. In New London His- 
torical Society Papers, part 5, vol. i. 

Dexter, Franklin B. Biographical Sketches of Graduates 
of Yale. 3 vols. May, 1701-May, 1745; New York, 
1885. May, 1745-May, 1763; New York, 1896. May, 
1763-May, 1778; New York, 1903. 

Kilbourne, P. K, Biographical History of the County of 
Litchfield. New York, 1851. 

Mitchell, Donald G. American Lands and Letters. 3 vols. 

First volume, for early newspapers, the Hartford Wits and 
literati of the colonial period. 



526 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Sprague, W. B. Annals of the American Pulpit. New 
York, 1857-69. 9 vols. 

Biographical Slcetehes in chronological order, contributed by 
540 writers of sectarian prominence, and with intent to show de- 
velopment of churches and the power of character. 

Vols, i and ii, Trinitarian-Congregationalists. Vols, iii and iv, 
Presbyterian. Vol. v, Episcopalians (reference for the Episcopal 
Kepublican coalition in 1818 in Connecticut). Vol. vi, Baptists. 
Vol. vii, Methodists. Vol. viii, Unitarians. Vol. ix, Lutherans, 
Dutch Eeformed, etc. 

Tyler, Moses Coit. Three Men of Letters (George Berke- 
ley, Timothy D wight and Joel Barlow). New York 
and London, 1895. 



B. CONNECTICUT NEWSPAPERS 

w. abbreviation for weekly 

Hartford 
American Mercury, w. Anti-Federal. 

Founded July 12, 1784, with Joel Barlow, editor, and Elisha 
Babcock, publisher. In 1833 merged into the Independent Press. 

Yale University Library has a file practically complete to 1828, 
only 20 numbers missing. 

Connecticut Courant. w. Federal, Whig, Republican. 

Founded 1764, by Thomas Green as organ of the Loyal Sons of 
Liberty ; later supported Washington and Adams ; continued as 
the weekly and now daily Hartford Courant. Said to be the old- 
est newspaper still published in the United States. 

Connecticut Courant and the Weekly Hartford Intelli- 
gencer, 1774. 

Connecticut Courant and the Weekly Intelligencer, Feb. 
1781. 

The latter part of title dropped March 21, 1791. 

In 1837 the Daily Courant was established. This paper bought 
out the Independent Press (which in turn had absorbed the 
American Mercury) ; and the staff of the Press, including Charles 
Dudley "Warner, Gen. J. R. Hawley and Stephen A. Hubbard, 
joined William H. Goodrich, who was the business manager of 
the Courant. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 527 

Connecticut Mirror, w. Federal. 

Founded July 10, 1809, by Charles Hosmer, publisher. During 
the War of 1812, it was the organ of the " extreme right" of the 
Federal party. It was continued until about 1835. 

Yale University Library contains an almost complete file up to 
1831. 

Times, w. Democratic-Republican. 

Founded Jan., 1817, with Frederick D. Bolles, publisher, and 
M. Niles, editor. Its slogan was" Toleration" and the New Con- 
stitution. 

March 2, 1841, it became the Daily Times, and still continues. 

New Haven 
Columbian Register, w. Democrat. 

Founded Dec. 1, 1812, Joseph Barber, publisher, to give " pro- 
ceedings of Congress, latest news from Europe and history of 
New England, particularly of Connecticut." Daily edition, 1845 ; 
Sunday edition, 1877. 

Yale University has a continuous file. 
The Connecticut Gazette, w. 

Printed by James Parker, April, 1755. Suspended April 14, 1764. 
Kevived by Benjamin Mecom, July 5, 1765. Ended Feb. 19, 1768. 

Connecticut Herald, lo. Federal, Republican. 

Founded 1803, by Comstock, Griswold & Co., pubhshers, Thomas 
Green Woodward, editor. A Daily Herald, issued Nov. 16, 1832. 
In 1835 its publishers. Woodward & Carrington, bought the 
Connecticut Journal. The Daily Herald and Journal of 1846 soon 
became, by buying out the Courier, The Morning Journal and 
Courier, as now, and its weekly edition, the Connecticut 
Herald. 

Yale University has a continuous file. 

The Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy. w. 
Federal. 

Founded 1767 by Thomas and Samuel Green. It was started 
about four months before the Connecticut Gazette (New Haven). 
It failed April 7, 1835, and was sold to Woodward & Carrington, 
owners of the Daily Herald. 

The title " and New Haven Post Boy " was omitted about 
1775. It was known in 1799, for a few months only, as the Con- 
necticut Journal and Weekly Advertiser, and in 1809, for a few 
months only, as the Connecticut Journal and Advertiser. 

Yale's file dates from 1774 to 1835. 

The New Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine. v}„ 
Meigs & Dana, Feb. 16, 1786-1798. 



528 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

New London 

The Connecticut Post and New Haven Visitor, w. 

Founded Oct. 30, 1802, as the Visitor ; title changed Nov. 3, 1803. 
Ended its existence about Nov. 8, 1834. 

The New London Gazette, w. (Connecticut Gazette.) 

Founded by Timothy Green, November, 1763. The earlier Con- 
necticut Gazette, published at New Haven, April, 1755- April 14, 
1763, having ended February, 1768, the New London Gazette 
adopted the New Haven paper's name. The firm became Timothy 
Green & Son, 1789-1794. Samuel Green (the son) conducted the 
paper to 1841, except the year 1805, and from 1838 to 1840. Known 
as the Connecticut and Universal Intelligencer, Dec. 10, 1773-May 
11, 1787. 

Yale University files are from 1765 to 1828, except 1775, '76, '77, 
and '78. 

Outside of Connecticut 

Niles' Weekly Register, w. Baltimore, 1811-1849. 

It was known from 1811 to 1814 as the Weekly Eegister ; from 
1814 to August, 1837, as Niles' Weekly Register, and from 1837 to 
1849 as Niles' National Register. It devoted itself to the record 
of public events, essays and documents dealing with political, 
historical, statistical, economic and biographical matter. 



C. PUBLIC RECORDS AND OTHERS TOUCH- 
ING UPON CONNECTICUT HISTORY 

New Haven Colonial Records, ed. by C. J. Hoadly. 2 vols. 

1638-1649; 1653-1664. Hartford, 1857-58. 
Connecticut, Colonial Records of, ed. by C. J. Hoadly 

and J. Hammond Trumbull. 15 vols. 1635-1776^ 

Hartford, 1850-90. 
State of Connecticut, Records of the, ed. by C. J. Hoadly. 

2 vols. 1776-1778 ; 1778-1780. Hartford, 1894-95. 
United Colonies of New England, Records of the, in vol. 

ii. of E. Hazard's " Historical Collections consisting of 

State Papers and other authentic Documents, etc." 
Plymouth Colony, Records of, ed. by N. R. Shurtleff and 

D. Pulsifer. 12 vols. Boston, 1855-61. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 529 

Records of the General Association of Connecticut, June 
20, 1738, June 19, 1799 ; Hartford, 1888. 8 vols. 

Minutes of Proceedings of the General Association, 1818, on. 

Proceedings of Connecticut Missionary Society, 1801- 
1819. 

Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools of 
Connecticut, 1853. 

This annual report has a detailed account of the Western Land 
Bill appropriations, pp. 64-108. 

The Constitutions of Connecticut, with Notes and Statis- 
tics regarding Town Representation in the General 
Assembly, and Documents relating to the Constitutional 
Convention of 1902. Printed by Order of the State 
Comptroller. Hartford, 1901. 

The Code of 1650. In Hinman's " Antiquities of Connecti- 
cut." 

The Public Statute Laws of the State of Connecticut. 
Hartford, 1808. 

Acts and Laws, 1784-1794. (Supplements to Oct., 1795, 
laid in.) New London, 1784. 

Acts and Laws, 1811-1821. 



D. HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 

American Historical Association Annual Report. 1889- 

1904. 
Connecticut Historical Society Collections. 8 vols. 

Especially vol. i, Extract from Hooker's Sermon. VoL ii, Hart- 
ford Church Papers. Vol. iii, Extract from Letter to the Eev. 
Thomas Prince. Vols, v and vi, Talcott Papers. 

Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792-1904. 
64 vols. 

Volumes containing the Mather, Sewall, and Wlnthrop Papers 
were especially useful. 

Narragansett Club Publications. Providence, 1866. 6 
vols. 

The Correspondence of Roger Williams and John Cotton, vols. 
i and ii. 



530 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers. 6 vols. 
Rhode Island Historical Society Collections. 8 vols. 1827- 

92. Proceedings, 4 vols., 1871-92, and Publications, 

1892, onwards. 

Manuscripts 

Judge Church's MS. in New Haven Historical Society 
Library. 

A sketch prepared for the historian Holhster. 

Manuscript Records of the Newport Yearly Meeting, 
deposited in the Friends' School, Providence, R. I. 

Manuscript Minutes of the Hartford North Association, 
deposited in Yale library. 

Stiles, Ezra. Itinerary and Memoirs, 1760-1794, depos- 
ited in Yale College. 



E. DENOMINATIONAL LITERATURE 

1. Baptist 

Asplund, John. The Annual Register of the Baptist De- 
nomination in North America ... to Nov. 1, 1790 ; con- 
taining an account of the Churches and their Constitu- 
tions, Ministers, Members, Associations, their Plan and 
Sentiments, Rule and Order, Proceedings and Corre- 
spondence. Worcester, 1791-94. 

Backus, Isaac. A History of New England with Particu- 
lar Reference to the Denomination of Christians called 
Baptists. Newton, Mass., 1871. 2 vols. 

This edition by D. Weston includes Isaac Backus' prefaces to 
vol. i, finished 1777 ; vol. ii, 1784 ; and vol. iii, 1796. 

This contemporary writer is regarded as an authority, as much 
of his work was founded upon the court, town, and church records 
and upon the minutes of ecclesiastical councils. He searched 
diligently the records of Plymouth, Taunton, Boston, Essex, Provi- 
dence, Newport, Hartford and New Haven. The book has a 
chronological record of the Connecticut churches. It is very dis- 
cursive. 

Benedict, David. A General History of the Baptist De- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 531 

nomination in America and other parts of the world. 
Boston, 1813. 

This contains a more complete list of the associations and 
churches than that given by Backus. There is a valuable chapter, 
" Baptist Communities who differ from the main body of the de- 
nomination and who are also distinguished by some peculiarities 
of their own." 

Burrage, Henry S. A History of the Baptists in New 
England. Philadelphia, 1894. 

Particularly useful in tracing the progress of the denomination 
in the different states, and in its contribution to the history of re- 
ligious liberty. 

Cathcart, William (Editor). The Baptist Encyclopedia : 
A Dictionary of the Doctrines ... of the Baptist De- 
nomination in all Lands. Philadelphia, 1883. 2 vols. 

Curtis, Thomas F. The Progress of Baptist Principles in 
the Last Hundred Years. Boston, 1856. 

Denison, Frederic. Notes of the Baptists and their Princi- 
ples in Norwich. Norwich, 1859. 

This contains the famous Separatist Petition to the King in 1756. 
Guild, Reuben A. History of Brown University, with 

Illustrated Documents. Providence, 1867. 
Hovey, Alvah. A Memoir of the Life and Times of the 

Reverend Isaac Backus, A. M. Boston, 1858. 
Newman, Albert H. A History of the Baptist Churches 

in the United States. New York, 1894. 

2. Congregation ALiST 

A Confession of Faith, Owned and Consented to by the 
Elders and Messengers of the Churches in the Colony 
of Connecticut in New England Assembled by Delegates 
at Say brook, Sept. 9, 1708. 

First Edition (first book printed in Connecticut), New London, 
1710. 

Second Edition, New London, 1760, with Heads of Agreement; 
Edition of Hartford, 1831. « 

A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in 

a This is the edition referred to in text. 



532 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northamp- 
ton and the Neighboring Towns. ... In a letter to the 
Rev'^. Doctor Benjamin Colman of Boston, written by 
the Rev*. Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, on 
Nov. 6, 1736. London, 1737. 
Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, D. D. New York, 
1864. 3 vols. 

Especially valualDle for the attitude of the Congregational 
clergy during the first constitutional reform movement in Con- 
necticut, 

Bacon, Leonard. The Genesis of the New England 

Churches. New York, 1874. 
Thirteen Historical Discourses, on completion of Two 

Hundred Years from the beginning of the First Church, 

New Haven. New Haven, 1839. 
Baldwin, Simeon E, Ecclesiastical Constitution of Yale 

College. In New Haven Historical Society's Papers, 

vol. iii. 
Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut: 

prepared under the direction of the General Association, 

to commemorate the completion of one hundred and 

fifty years since its first annual Assembly. New Haven, 

1861. 

See under L. Bacon, the history of David Brainerd. 

Barrowe, Henry. Answer to Mr. Gifford. 

A Briefe Discoverie of the False Church. Date, 

1590. London ed. 1707. 
• A True Description of the Word of God, of the 

Visible Church, 1589. 
Briggs, Charles Augustus. American Presbyterianism : 

Its Origin and Early History. New York, 1885. 
Browne, Robert. An Answer to Master Cartwright His 

Letter for Joyning with the English Churches. London, 

1585. 

A True and Short Declaration. Middelburg, 1584. 

A Treatise of Reformation without tarrying. Mid- 
delburg, 1582. 
The Book which Sheweth the life and manners of 

all true Christians, and how unlike they are unto Turkes 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 533 

and Papists and Heathen folk. Also the pointes and 
partes of all Divinitie that is of the revealed will and 
words of God, and declared by their severall Definitions 
and Divisions in order as followeth. Middelburg, 
1582. 

Browne, Robert. " A New Years Guift : " an hitherto 
lost treatise. (Letter of Dec. 31, 1588, to his uncle, M. 
Flower.) Edited by Champlin Burrage. London, 1904. 

Clap, Thomas. Religious Constitution of Colleges, with 
Special Reference to Yale. New London, 1754. 

Cotton, John. Civil Magistrates Power in Matters of Re- 
ligion. London, 1655. 

The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and Powers 

thereof according to the Word of God. London, 1644. 

Questions and Answers upon Church Government. 

London, 1713. 

Way of the Churches of Christ in New England. 

London, 1645. 

Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared. Lon- 
don, 1648. 

Cotton, John. In title, but a misprint for : — 

Davenport, John. A Discourse about Civil Government 
in a New Plantation whose design is Religion, written 
many years since. Cambridge, 1643. 

Dexter, Henry Martyn. The Congregationalism of the 
last Three Hundred Years : as seen in its Literature 
with special reference to certain Recondite, Neglected 
or Disputed Passages. New York, 1880. 

Lectures, with Bibliography of over 7000 titles and Index. An 
historical review of Congregationalism from its earliest forms 
to the last half of the nineteenth century. 

History of Congregationalists. Hartford, 1894. 

Brief popular history. 

Story of the Pilgrims. Boston and Chicago, 1894. 

Dunning, Albert E. Congregationalists in America. New 

York, 1894. 
Dutton, S. M. S. History of the North Church, New 

Haven, from its Formation in May 1742, during the 



534 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Great Awakening, to the Completion of the Century, 
in May 1842. New Haven, 1842. 

Edwards, Jonathan. Works of, with Memoir by S. E. 
Dwight. New York, 1829. 10 vols. 

Fisher, George P. Discourses , . . Church of Christ 
in Yale College, November 22, 1857. New Haven, 
1858. 
Frequent citations from the diaries of the Cleveland brothers. 

Fitch, Thomas. Explanation of the Saybrook Platform, 
The Principles of the Consociated Churches in Con- 
necticut ; Collected from the Plan of Union. By one 
that heartily desires the Order, Peace and Purity of 
these Churches. Hartford, 1765. 

Hobart, Noah. An Attempt to illustrate and confirm the 
Ecclesiastical Constitution of the Consociated Churches 
in the Colony of Connecticut. New Haven, 1765. 

Hooker, Richard. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. 
London, 1648. 

Hooker, Thomas. Survey of the Summe of Church Dis- 
cipline. London, 1648. 

Lechford, Thomas. Plaine Dealing. London, 1642. 

Letter of Many Ministers in Old England requesting the 
Judgment of their Brethren in New England concern- 
ing Nine Positions . . . 1637. . . . Together with their 
Answer thereunto returned Anno 1639 (by J. Daven- 
port). London, 1643. 

Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi Americana ; or, The 
Ecclesiastical History of New England 1620-1698. 
London, 1702. Hartford, 1855. 2 vols. 

Ratio Discipline Fratrum Nov-Anglorum ; A Faith- 
ful Account of the Discipline Professed and Practised 
in the Churches of New England. Boston, 1726. 

Mather, Richard. Church Government and Church Cove- 
nant Discussed. London, 1643. 

Prince, Thomas. The Christian History of the Revival 
and Propagation of Religion. Boston, 1743. 

Purchard, George. History of Congregationalism from 
about 250 a. d. to 1616. New York and Boston, 1865- 
1888. 5 vols. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 535 

Walker, George Leon. History of the First Church of 
Hartford. Hartford, 1884. 

Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England 

with special reference to Congregationalists. New 
York, Boston and Chicago, 1897. 

Walker, Williston. The Creeds and Platforms of Con- 
gregationalism. New York, 1893. 

A History of the Congregational Churches in the 

United States. (American Church History Series). 
New York, 1894. 

White, Daniel Appleton. New England Congregation- 
alism in its Origin and Purity: illustrated by the 
foundation and early records of First Church in 
Salem. Salem, 1861. 

Wolcott, Roger. A Letter to Rev. Mr. Noah Hobart. 
[The New English Congregational Churches .... 
Consociated Churches.] Boston, 1761. 

3. Episcopalian 

Beardsley, E. Edwards, D. D. History of the Episcopal 
Church in Connecticut. New York, 1865-68. 2 vols. 

An account of the cliurch in Connecticut with strong church 
bias and inclination to excuse the Tory sentiments of the early 
rectors. Second volume gives the Episcopal side of the " Tolera- 
tion " conflict of 1817-18. Much interesting detail. 

Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register. In American 
Quarterly Church Review, vol. x, p. 116. New Haven 
and New York, 1848-91. 

Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical So- 
ciety, The. New York, 1851-53. 2 vols. 

These MSS. are found in Perry and Hawks's Documentary His- 
tory, and include a valuable article on the Episcopate before the 
Revolution, by F. L. Hawks, also " Thoughts upon the present 
state of the Church of England in the Colonies," [1764] by an un- 
known contemporary. 

Cross, Arthur Lyon. The History of the Anglican Epis- 
copate and the American Colonies. New York and 
London, 1902. 

Hawkins, E. Historical Notices of the Missions of the 



636 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Church of England in the North American Colonies. 
London, 1845. 

Chiefly drawn from MS. documents of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel. 

Hawks (Frances Lister) and Perry (William Stevens). 
Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States. Containing . , . docu- 
ments concerning the Church in Connecticut. New 
York, 1863-64. 2 vols. 

See Perry, William Stevens. 

McConnell, Samuel Davis. History of the American 
Episcopal Church. New York, 1890. 

A brief general history with a number of pages devoted to the 
attempts to establish the Episcopate in America and to the polit- 
ical hostility that it roused. 

Perry, William Stevens (Bishop of Iowa). [See F. L. 
Hawks.] Documentary History of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. New York, 1863-64. 2 vols. 

Unbiased; arranged under topical heads; has illustrated 
monographs by different authors; illustrations, including fac- 
similes ; and also critical notes, frequently referring to original 
sources. It contains many letters from the missions established by 
the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. 

Shaw, W. A. A History of the Church of England. 
2 vols. 

4. Methodist 

Asbury's (Francis) Journal. New York, 1821. 3 vols. 

A brief diary of all Bishop Asbury's American journeys : Vols, 
ii and iii concern New England, with comments on his surround- 
ings, his preaching and the people. 

Bangs, Nathan. History of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church. New York, 1841-45. 4 vols. 
Clark, Edgar F. The Methodist Episcopal Churches of 

Norwich. Norwich, 1867. 

Convenient secondary authority gives, pp. 6-21, a connected 
account of the early days of Connecticut Methodism. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 537 

Scudder, Moses Lewis. American Methodism. Hart- 
ford, 1870. 

General attitude of New England towards the introduction of 
Methodism. 

Stevens, Abel. Memorials of the Introduction of Metho- 
dism into the Eastern States. Boston, 1848. 
Biographical notices of the early preachers, sketches of the 
earner societies, and reminiscences of struggles and successes. 
" Some account of every Methodist preacher who was regularly 
appointed to New England during the first five years " of New 
England Methodism, derived from original sources, letters, and 
from hooks now out of print. The fullest account of Connecticut 
Methodists. It contains frequent citations from Jesse Lee's diary. 
Appendix A contains valuable statistics ; appendix B has a scur- 
rilous pamphlet, " A Key to unlock Methodism, or Academical 
Hubbub," etc., pubhshed in Norwich, 1800. 

The Centenary of American Methodism: a Sketch 

of its History, Theology, Practical System, and Suc- 
cess. New York, 1866. 

The History of the Religious Movement of the 

Eighteenth Century, called Methodism. New York, 
1858-61. 3 vols. 

5. Quakers, or the Society op Friends 

Besse, Joseph. A Collection of the Sufferings of the Peo- 
ple called Quakers, for the Testimony of a Good Con- 
science, etc., to the year 1689. London, 1753. 2 vols. 

Vol. ii contains a full account of their persecutions, together 
with copies of the proceedings against them and letters from the 
sufferers. 
Bowden, James. History of the Society of Friends in 

America. New York and London, 1845. 2 vols. 

A history of the sect throughout New England, containing 
many short biographies. It is fair and frank in its record of New 
England persecutions. The author adopts the unique plea that 
the excesses of the converts were inspired by the Holy Spirit as 
a reproof to their persecutors for the kind of persecution and 
punishment that was meted out to innocent persons. 
Evans, Charles. Friends in the Seventeenth Century. 

Philadelphia, 1876. 
Gough, John. History of the People called Quakers, 

Dublin, 1789-90. 4 vols. 



538 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Hallowell, Richard Price. The Pioneer Quakers. Boston 

and New York, 1887. 
Manuscript Records of Early Newport Yearly (Friends') 

Meetings — at Friends' School, Providence, R. I. 

Minutes of meetings, reports of cases of oppression, of converts, 
etc. 

Sewel, William. The History of the Rise, Increase and 
Progress of the Christian People called Quakers, Inter- 
mixed with Several Remarkable Occurrences. Written 
originally in Low Dutch by W. S. and by himself trans- 
lated into English. 

1st ed., Amsterdam, 1717 ; 2d ed., London, 1722 ; 3d ed., 1725, 
2 vols. Philadelphia, 1728, etc. New York, 1844.o 

Wagstaff, William R. History of the Friends (compiled 
from standard records and authentic sources). New 
York and London, 1845. 

A defense of the excesses in Quaker eccentricities as reli- 
gious enthusiasm in persons who were driven by persecution to 
the verge of madness. A similar view is expressed hy R. P. 
Hallowell and by Brooks Adams in his " Emancipation of Massa- 
chusetts." 



F. TRACTS (RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL OR 
BOTH) 

Of these, several titles that are found at full length either in 
the text or footnotes are omitted here. Many more might have 
been added, but it is thought best to omit them because of their 
cumbrous titles, their scant interest to the average reader, and 
their inaccessibility, being found only in the largest libraries 
or among rare Americana. For similar reasons, works strictly 
theological in character are also not listed. Any sizable library 
possesses a copy of H. M. Dexter's " Congregationalism as seen 
in the Literature of the last Three Hundred Years." Its biblio- 
graphy of over 7000 titles gives all the religious, ecclesiastical or 
politico-ecclesiastical tracts, and theological works touching upon 
Congregationalism. Yale University library has a large amount 
of the Americana collected by Mr. Dexter. 

Trumbull's list of books published in Connecticut before 1800 
gives the titles of books and pamphlets of strictly local import. 

« This is the edition referred to in text. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 539 

The Baptist Confession of Faith; first put forth in 1648; 
afterwards enlarged, corrected and published by an 
Assembly of Delegates (from the churches in Great 
Britain) met in London, July 3, 1689; adopted by the 
Association at Philadelphia, September 22, 1742, and 
now received by churches of the same denomination in 
most of the American States, to which is added a Sys- 
tem of Church Discipline. Portland, 1794. 

Bartlett, Moses. False and Seducing Teachers. New 
London, 1757. 

Beecher, Lyman. Sermon. A Reformation of Morals 
practicable and indispensible. . . . New Haven, 1813. 
Andover, 1814. 

Bishop, Abraham. Connecticut Republicanism. An Ora- 
tion on the extent and power of Political Delusion. 
Delivered in New Haven, September, 1800. 

Proofs of a Conspiracy against Christianity and the 

Government of the United States; exhibited in several 
views of the Church and State in New England. Hart- 
ford, 1802. 

The Oration in honor of the election of President 

Jefferson and the peaceful acquisition of Louisiana, 
1801. 

Bishop, George. New England Judged, Not by Man's, 
but the Spirit of the Lord : And the Summe sealed up 

, of New England's Persecutions. Being a Brief Relation 
of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers in these 
Parts. London, 1661. 

Bolles, John. Concerning the Christian Sabbath. 1757. 

To Worship God in Spirit and in Truth is True 

Liberty of Conscience. 1756. 

A Relation of the Opposition which some Baptist 

People met at Norwich. 1761. 

Booth, Abraham. Essay on Kingdom of Christ. London, 
1788. New London, 1801.« 

American edition edited by John Sterry of the Norwich " True 
Kepublican," together with notes containing his strictures on the 
Connecticut and EngUsh Established Church. 

« This is the edition referred to in text. 



540 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bragge, Robert. Church Discipline. London, 1739. Re- 
pubhshed, New London, 1768.« 

"A Defence of simple Congregationalism and disestablish- 
ment." 

Browne, Joseph. Principles of Baptism. A Letter to 
Infant Baptisers in .the North Parish of New London. 
New London, 1767. 

Quoted by Rev. E. H. Gillett, Hist. Mag. 2d series, vol. iv, p. 28. 

Browne, Robert. A Treatise of reformation without 
tarrying for Magistrates and of the wickednesse of 
those Preachers which will not reforme till the Magis- 
trates commande or compell them. Middelburg, 1582. 
Only three copies known. Reprint at Boston and 
London. 

Chauncy, Charles, Rev. Seasonable Thoughts. Boston, 
1743. 

Treats of the Great Awakening, of which the author was a 
determined opponent. 

Clap, Thomas. Brief History and Vindication of the 
Doctrines received and established in the Churches of 
New England. New Haven, 1755. 

Daggett, David. Argument, before the General Assembly 
of Connecticut, Oct. 1804, in the case of Certain* Jus- 
tices of the Peace. . . . New Haven, 1804. 

Count the Cost. An Address to the People of 

Connecticut. . . . By Jonathan Steadfast. Hartford, 
1804. 

Facts are Stubborn Things, or Nine Plain Questions 

to the People of Connecticut. By Simon Holdfast. 
Hartford, 1803. 

Steady Habits Vindicated. Hartford, 1805. 

Sun-Beams may be extracted from Cucumbers, but 

the process is tedious. An Oration, pronounced 4 July, 
1799 New Haven, 1799. 

Darling, Thomas. Some Remarks on President Clap's 
"History and Vindication." New Haven, 1757. 

a This is the edition referred to in text. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 541 

Foster, Isaac. Defence of Religious Liberty. Worcester, 
1779. 

Frothingham, Ebenezer. A Key to unlock the Door, That 
leads in, to take a Fair View of the Religious Constitu- 
tion, Established by Law, in the Colony of Connecticut 
. . . with a short Observation upon the Explanation of 
Saybrook Plan, etc. and Mr. Hobart's attempt etc. Re- 
viewing R. Ross, Plain Address. Boston, 1767. 

Hobart, Noah. An Attempt to Illustrate and Confirm the 
Ecclesiastical Covenant of the Connecticut Churches, 
— occasioned by a late Explanation of the Saybrook 
Platform. New Haven, 1765. 

Holly, Israel. A Plea in Zion's Behalf : The Censured 
Memorial made Public ... to which is added a few 
Brief Remarks upon ... an Act for Exempting . . . 
Separatists from Taxes, etc. 1765. 

Quoted by Kev. E. H. Gillett, Hist. Mag., 2d series, vol. iv. 

Huntington, R. (Editor). Review of the Ecclesiastical 
Establishments of Europe (by William Graham). 
1808. 

Special reference to the bearing of the book on the Connecticut 
Establishment, and particularly upon its Parish System. 

Judd, William. Address to the People of the State of 
Connecticut, on the removal of himself and four other 
Justices from Office. . . . New Haven, 1804. 

Leland, John. A Blow at the Root. Being a fashionable 
Fast-Day Sermon. New London, 1801. 

The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box : No. I. 

Containing, The High-flying Churchman stript of his 
legal Robe appears a Yaho. New London, 1802. 

Van Tromp lowering his Peak with a Broadside: 

Containing a plea for the Baptists of Connecticut. Dan- 
bury, 1803. 

The Rights of Conscience inalienable ; . . . Or, 

The high-flying Churchman, stript of his legal Robe, 
appears a Yaho. 

See The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box. 



642 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Martin-Mar-Prelate Tracts. See H. M. Baxter's Con- 
gregationalism as seen in Literature, Lecture iii, pp. 
131-205. 

Norton, John. The Heart of New England rent at the 
Blasphemies of the Present Generation. Or a brief 
Tractate concerning the Doctrine of the Quakers etc. 
Cambridge, New England, 1659. 

Paine, Solomon. A Short View of the Difference between 
the Church of Christ, and the established Churches in 
the Colony of Connecticut in their Foundation and 
Practice with their Ends : being a Word of Warning to 
several Ranks of Profession ; and likewise Comfort to 
the Ministers and Members of the Church of Christ. 
1752. 

Richards, George H. The Politics of Connecticut ; by a 
Federal Republican. New London, 1817. 

Rogers, John. A Midnight Cry from the Temple of God 
to the Ten Virgins. See F. M. Caulkins' History of 
New London, pp. 202-221. 

John Rogers, A Servant of Jesus Christ . . . giving 

a Description of True Shepherds of Christ's Flocks and 
also of the Anti-Christian Ministry, ith ed. Norwich, 
1776. 

New London Prison. 

See F. H. Gillett, Hist. Mag., 2d series, vol. iv. 

Ross, Robert. Plain Address to the Quakers, Moravians, 
Separatists, Separate Baptists, Rogerines, and other 
Enthusiasts on Immediate Impulses and Revelations, 
etc. New Haven, 1752, 

Stiles, Ezra. A Discourse on Christian Union. (Appen- 
dix containing a list of New England Churches. A. D. 
1760.) Boston, 1761. 

Stoddard, Solomon. The Doctrine of Instituted Churches 
Explained and Proved from the Word of God. 1700. 

Webster, Noah. A Rod for the Fool's Back. New 
Haven, 1800. 
Being a reply to Abraham Bishop, 

Williams, Nathan. An Inquiry Concerning the Design 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 543 

and Importance of Christian Baptism and Discipline. 
Hartford, 1792. 

/^olcott, Roger. The New-English Congregational 
Churches are and always have been Consociated 
Churches, and their Liberties greater and better 
founded, in their Platform of Church Discipline agreed 
to at Cambridge, 1648, than what is contained at Say- 
brook, 1705, etc. Boston, 1761. 



INDEX 



Abbot, George, Archbishop, 27, 42. 
Act for the Support of Literature 

and Religion, 467-471. 
Act to secure equal rights, powers, 

and privileges, 479. 
Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, 

22. 
Agreement, Heads of. See Heads of 

Agreement. 
Albany Convention of 1862, 367. 
American Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, first auxiliary of, 462. 
American Episcopate, 175-178; 192- 

200; 311-318. 
American Philosophical Society,322. 
Anabaptists, 72. 
Anti-Federal Party, 371, 393, 394, 

397, 408 ; birth of, 355-357. 
Antinomian schism, 71. 
Arianism, 301, 304, 369, 409. 
Arminianism, 302, 303, 409. 
Asbury, Francis, Bishop, 358, 359. 
Ashurst, Sir Henry, 182-185. 
Associations, in Massachusetts, 133; 

in Connecticut, 142; Hartford, 

North, 150 ; of Windham, 264 ; of 

Middletown, 269. 
Awakening, Great. See Great 

Awakening. 

Backus, Rev. Isaac, 278, 329, 331, 
333. 

Bancroft, Richard, Archbishop, 27. 

Baptists, 157-159, 239, 263, 270, 276, 
201, 292, 299, 319, 320, 327-330, 
336, 358, 360, 365, 371, 380, 383, 
386, 387, 405, 407, 410, 411, 415, 
425, 429, 467, 468, 469, 471, 487 ; 
exemption from rates, 217 ; perse- 
cution of, 278 ; petition of, 426- 
428. 

Barlow, Joel, 323. 

Barrowe, Henry, a London lawyer, 
10 ; connection with Henry Green- 
wood, 11 ; his theories of church 
polity compared with Browne's, 
14-20; spread of Barrowism, 20, 
48, 98, 120, 365. 

Barrowism. See Barrowe, Henry. 

Bartlett, Rev. Moses, 287. 



Beach, Rev. John, 315. 

Beecher, Rev. Lyman, 438-440, 446, 
461, 462. 

Bellamv, Rev. Joseph, 229, 241, 303, 
304, 305, 306, 307, 361, 409, 410. 

Bishop, Abraham, 418-426, 431, 435; 
" Extent and Power of Political 
Delusions," 420 ; " Proofs of a 
Conspiracy," 423,425; Connecti- 
cut Republicanism, 424, 425 ; 
" Oration in Honor . . . of Jeffer- 
son," 430, 431. 

Bishop, Samuel, 418, 419, 422, 423. 

Bishop's Fund, 405, 417, 443, 471. 

Bishops in America. See Episcopate. 

Boardman, Edward, 463. 

BoUes, Rev. Augustus, 470. 

Bolles, John, 162, 290. 

Boroughs, rotten, 397. 

Boston, church of, 55, 68. 

Bradford, Gov. WiUiam, 51. 

Bragge, Robert, " Church Disci- 
pline," 297. 

Brainerd, Rev. David, 246, 256, 264. 

Branford, church of, 264. 

Bray, Rev. Thomas, his "Memorial,'-* 
176. 

Brewster, Elder William, 48. 

Briant, Rev. Lemuel, 306. 

Bright, Rev. Francis, 52. 

Brown, Rev. Daniel, 195, 196. 

Brown, Rev. Joseph, " Letter to the 
Infant Baptizers," 297, 298. 

Browne, Robert, pivotal dogmas, 3; 
precursors of, 3-8; life, 8-10; 
church at Norwich, 8; its migra- 
tion to Zealand, 9 ; preaching at 
Cambridge, 12; his theories of 
church polity compared with those 
of Barrowe, 13-20 ; Brownism, 119, 
365. 

Brownism. See Browne, Robert. 

"Brownists," derisively applied to 
Plymouth settlers, 48. 

Bulkley, John, 275. 

Burr, Aaron, 409, 417, 418. 

Calvin, 5. 

Calvinism, in England, 6, 7, 35 ; in 
the Great Awakening, 237, 238. 



546 



INDEX 



Calvinistic theory of eldership in 
Barrowism, 17. 

Cambridge Platform, 76-121, 154, 
224, 270, 333, 365 ; application of, 
99 et seq. ; departure from, 126. 

Cambridge Synod, 81, 87, 89-97. 

Canterbury church, 248, 253-255, 
258-260, 277, 365. 

Cart Wright, Thomas, 6 ; his eccle- 
siastical polity, 7, 33 ; indifferent 
to Barrowism, 18 ; extends his own 
reforms in Warwickshire and 
Northamptonshire, 18, 23, 24. 

Certificate Laws, 367, 479; discus- 
sion of, 368-392. 

Chandler, Rev. Thomas Bradbury, 
320. 

Charles I, succeeds James I, 44 ; his 
misrule, 45 ; appoints Laud to the 
bishopric of London, 51. 

Charter of 1662, 394, 395. 

Chauncy, Rev. Charles, 107, 237, 
317, 320. 

Cheshire Academy, charter for, 417, 
437. 

Church, nature of a Congrega- 
tional church defined by Browne 
and Barrowe, 13-20; its organiza- 
tion, and officers, 13-20 ; its mem- 
bership, 13-16 ; officers of, in 
New England, 56 ; relation of, to 
civil government, 60-70; summary 
of church organization, 91-97 ; 
dual membership in, 105 ; the 
Great Schism, 233-273. 

Churchmen in Connecticut. See 
Episcopalians. 

Clap, Pres. Thomas, 280, 281, 282, 
289. 

Clark, Rev. Peter, 304. 

Cleaveland, John and Ebenezer, 257, 
258. 

Clergy, colonial, 308-310, 439; in 
the war of 1812, 462, 463. 

CoggeshaU, Rev. James, 259. 

College Church, 280, 281. 

Collins, Rev. Nathaniel, 261. 

Colman, Rev. Benjamin, 229. 

Confederacy of United Colonies, 87. 

Confession, Westminster. iSee West- 
minster Confession. 

Congregational, usage of the word, 
2, 150, 336 ; church and ecclesiasti- 
cal society, 119. 

Congregationalism of colonists of 
Connecticut, New Haven, Mas- 
sachusetts and Plymouth, 1 ; early, 
2, 3 ; Brownism and Barrowism, 
13-20 ; Dr. Dexter's definition of, 
2, 3 ; religious movements preced- 
ing Brownism, 4-8 ; sketch of 
Browne's life and work, 8-10; of 



Greenwood and Barrowe, 10-13 ; 
Brownism in modern, 20 ; spread 
of Barrowism, 20-22 ; London 
' church exiled to Holland, 21 ; pol- 
icy of Elizabeth toward non-con- 
formists, 22, 25, 27 ; of James I, 
28 ; exile of the Gainsborough 
Church, 29; emigration of the 
Scrooby church to America, 39 ; 
fundamental principle of, 54 ; be- 
ginning of, in New England, 54; 
break with English Episcopacy, 
54 ; theory of, 64 ; deflection from, 
64 ; synods of, 72 ; review of Co- 
lonial, 97 ; church and society in, 
119. 

Congregationalist and Separatist, 
239. 

Connecticut, churches in, 62 ; con- 
trol of churches by General Court, 
74 ; Half-Way Covenant, 102, 107, 
108, 109 ; Establishment, 116, 147, 
151, 155, 156, 160, 167, 236 e( seq. ; 
absorption of New Haven Colony, 
109 ; politics, 109 ; toleration, first 
extended, 116, 117 ; loss of inter- 
est in religious questions, 123-125 ; 
approves Refoi-ming Synod, 127 ; 
deterioration of the churches, 128- 
130, 132 ; narrowing of franchise, 
130-132; "Proposals of 1705," 
133-135; Governor Saltonstall and 
the churches, 135, 136 ; Saybrook 
Synod, 130, 137 ; terms of the Say- 
brook Platform, 138-147 ; adop- 
tion of Saybrook Platform, 147 ; 
Toleration Act for Sober Dissent- 
ers, 147, 157 ; chm'ch polity in 
18th century, 150-152; proviso of 
Saybrook Platform, 154-156, 233 ; 
early Quakers in, 164-171 ; loss of 
royal favor after 1688, 173 ; pros- 
perity of the colony, 173; paper 
currency in, 173, 225 ; population 
of, 173 ; complaints against, 181- 
185, 209, 214 (see Mohegan In- 
dians, also Hallam Case) ; danger 
to charter, 186; fear of Episco- 
pacy, 195 ; exemption of Episco- 
palians from ecclesiastical taxes, 
200 ; exemption of Baptists, 217 ; 
exemption of Quakers, 216 ; laws 
against the Rogerines, 204, 205 ; 
boundary disputes, 206 ; royal dis- 
favor, 207 et seq. ; Intestate Act, 
207-214, 314 ; financial depression 
in, 225 ; Act of 1717, 225 ; Great 
Awakening, 222-232, 270, 271 ; the 
great schism, 233 et seq. ; eccle- 
siastical laws of 1742-43, 242-245, 
262, 263, 265, 269 ; Canterbury 
Church, 248, 253-255, 258-260; 



INDEX 



547 



Enfield Church, 261, 262; New 
Haven Church, 248-253; law of 
1746, 267-268 ; revision of laws of 
1750, 273, 275, 338 ; English influ- 
ence on ecclesiastical legislation, 
275-278; newspapers, 300, 350; 
denial of the Trinity, a felony, 
305 ; remonstrance against British 
taxation, 324, 325, 327 ; ecclesias- 
tical laws of 1770, 327, 328 ; Act 
exempting Separates, 333, 334 ; 
Laws and Acts of the State of 
Connecticut, 338, 353-354; town 
development, 342-344 ; Western 
Reserve of, 343 ; condition after 
Revolution, 342-367 ; commerce, 
344-350; schools, 346-349; first 
law school, 348, 349; intelligence 
of people, 350; newspaper circula- 
tion, 351, 352 ; state politics, 1783- 
1787, 355 et seq. ; General Asso- 
ciation of, 360; Missions of, 361, 
386, 387 ; Certificate Laws and 
Western Land Bills, 368-392 ; form 
of dissenter's certificate, 372-374, 
378 ; annual state expenses, 384 ; 
School Fund of, 390, 392 ; Land 
Company, 391 ; rotten boroughs, 
397 ; bill for decreasing town re- 
presentation, 397-399 ; in the war 
of 1812, 446-461; direct taxes in 
1813, 452 ; manufactures, 459, 
460, 473 ; Act for the Support of 
Literature and Religion, 467-471 ; 
economic conditions, 473, 475 ; 
taxes, 473, 474; summary of the 
Constitution of, 476-478 ; suffrage, 
478 ; Act to secure equal rights, 
powers, and privileges, 479 ; Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1818, 
481-492 ; Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1902, see note 218, p. 492. 

Connecticut Establishment, 74, 114, 
136, 137, 138-153, 155, 157, 100, 
188, 202, 217, 220, 233, 267, 283, 
299, 364, 370, 377, 392. 

Connecticut Missionary Society, 414. 

Consociation, 143, 146 ; of New 
Haven, 264, 269, 278 ; of Fairfield 
(East), 264; of Wmdham, 264, 
268, 337. 

Consociation, General, meets at 
Guilford, 240 ; measures of, 
against the Separatists, 240, 241, 
249. 

Constitution and Reform Ticket, 
480. 

Constitutional Reform, 393, 405, 428, 
429, 472-496, note 218. 

Constitution of 1818, vote upon, 492 ; 
reception of, 492, 493 ; changes 
by, 493-496. 



Constitutional convention, 481-492 ; 
preliminaries to, 481-484; strength 
of parties in, 484; prominent 
members, 485, 486 ; method of 
procedure, 486; Bill of Rights, 
487, 488 ; Article of Religion, 489- 
492. 

Constitutional questions, 397-399, 
403-405. 

Convention at Albany. See Plan of 
Union. 

Cotton, Rev. John, 46, 106 ; on de- 
mocracy, 61 ; on church govern- 
ment, 65, 66. 

Council, Governor's, 395 ; Upper 
House, 395, 396 ; grievances 
against, 402. 

Court of Election, 400. 

Covenant, church, 15, 53, 54. 

Cutler,' Rev. Timothy, 195-197. 

Daggett, David (Connecticutensis), 
424, 427, 435, 436; "Facts are 
Stubborn Things," 426 ; " Count 
the Cost," 432. 

Dana, Rev. James, 278. 

Darling, Thomas, 289, 290. 

Davenport, Mr. James, of Stamford, 

. 398. 

Davenport, Rev. Jamea, 230, 242, 
263. 

Davenport, Rev. John, on civil gov- 
ernment, 65 ; leader of the New 
Haven colony, 77 ; quoted, 25 ; 
letter, 103. 

Deacon. See trader Church. 

Deaconess, or widow. See under 
Church. 

Democratic Republican party, 394, 
405, 407-409, 415, 416, 426, 427, 
428, 432, 433, 436, 437, 444; or- 
ganization of, 417 ; General Com- 
mittee of, 431. See also Republi- 
can Party. 

Dexter, Henry Martyn, his defini- 
tion of Congregationalism, 2, 

Disestablishment, 405, 445-497. See 
also Leland, Rev. John. 

Dissenters, Committee of English, 
276 et seq., 279, 319; certificate 
of, 372-374, 378, 392. Sep also 
Baptists, Episcopalians, Metho- 
dists, Quakers, Rogerines, Separa- 
tists. 

Domestic Missionary Society for 
building up of waste places, 462. 

Dorchester, church of, 55, 68. 

Drake, Deacon Nathaniel, Jr., 278. 

Dual membership, 105, 118. 

Dwight, Theodore, 417, 418, 424, 
435, 438, 453. 



648 



INDEX 



Dwight, Pres. Timothy, 307, 308, 
323, 411-413, 417, 418, 435, 437, 
461, 462. 

Ecclesiastical Commission, 26, 27. 

Ecclesiastical Establishments of Eu- 
rope, review of, 429. 

Edwardeanism, 365. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 241, 270, 
358 ; on church membership, 
quoted, 223; sermons, 226, 227; 
" Narrative of the surprising Work 
of God," 228; as an itinerant, 
229; teachings of, 236, 302, 306; 
favors the Great Awakening, 245, 
247 ; resigns his pastorate, 247 ; 
his writings, 302-304. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, Jr., 307, 
411, 417. 

Edwards, Pierpont, 417, 427, 431, 
434, 474. 

Elders. See under Church. 

Elders, Ruling. See under Church. 

Election, of Assistants, Councilors, 
Magistrates, or Senators, 399-402; 
national, 1797, 415; state, 1800, 
416, 418, 423 ; state, 1804-06, 394, 
430, 436: of 1814, 463; of 1816, 463- 
467; of 1817, 471 ; of 1818, 480. 

Elizabeth, Queen, policy of, 22, 23, 
25, 26. 

Elliott, Rev. Jared, 322. 

Ellis, Rev. Jared, 195. 

Embargo of 1807, 446, 447; of 1812, 
448. 

Emmons, Rev. Nathaniel, 307, 308, 
365, 366. 

Endicott, Gov. John, 47, 48, 62, 

Enfield, church of. Se* 
church of Enfield. 

England, Puritan, 35-38. 

English Presbytery, first, 19. 

English Reformation, 4, 5-7, 22- 
28, 35. 

Episcopacy, conversion of Pres. Cut- 
ler, 195-197; fear of, in Con- 
necticut, 195 ; low ebb of, 358. 

Episcopal Church, American, found- 
ing of, 354. 

Episcopalians, 157, 239, 271, 281, 
299, 327, 405, 406, 410, 417, 436, 
437, 441, 445, 466, 467, 468, 471, 
487 ; in Stratford, 112 ; complaints 
of, against Connecticut, 171, 172; 
missionary priests, 174; clergy in 
New England to 1680, 174 ; per- 
secution of, 191, 192; of Fairfield, 
200 ; authority of the Bishop of 
London, 200 ; exemption from 
ecclesiastical taxes, 200; illegal 
treatment of, 201-203; contro- 
versy over ordination, 315; Amer- 



ican Episcopate, 175-178, 192-200, 

311-318 ; convention of, 318 ; 

Fasts and Thanksgivings, 378; in 

politics, 405, 417, 437,441-444. 
Episcopate, American, 310-317, 320, 

321 ; early attempts to found, 

176, 177, 192, 193. 
Era of Good Feeling, 461. 
Establishment, Congregational, in 

Connecticut. See Connecticut 

Establishment. 
" Extent and Power of Political 

Delusions (The)," 420. 

Fast Day, annual, on Good Friday, 

406. 
Fasts and thanksgivings, 378, 406. 
Federal party, 355, 357, 372, 405, 

410, 411, 416, 427, 428, 433, 436, 

437, 444, 445, 446, 449, 450, 453, 

454, 457, 461, 463, 464, 470, 475, 

478, 479, 489. 
Federalists, New England, opposi' 

tion to War of 1812, 452. 
Fine, for absence from worship, 

468. 
Finley, Rev. Samuel, 241, 262. 
" Fire Lands," 381. 
Fitch, Gov. Thomas, 275, 336. 
Foster, Rev. Dan, 337. 
Foster, Rev. Isaac, 337. 
Franchise, in Connecticut, 61, 62, 

131, 132, 431,478,493. 
French Revolution, 408, 409, 410. 
Freneau, Pliilip, 323. 
Friends, Society of. See Quakers. 
Frothingham, Rev. Ebenezer, 283 ; 

citations from, 283-297. 
Fuller, Dr. Samuel, visit of, to 

Salem, 47, 48-50. 
Fundamental Orders (The), 394, 

395, 399, 404. 

Garden, Alexander, Episcopal Com- 
missary in Carolina, 226. 

General Association of Connecticut, 
360, 386, 387, 414. 

General Court (The), 394, 396, 400. 

Gibson, Edmund, Bishop, 198, 199, 
200, 313, 314. 

Gilman, Bishop, letter to Dr. Col- 
man, 314. 

Goddard, Calvin, 454, 466. 

Good Friday as annual Fast Day, 
406. 

Goodrich, Chauncey, 453. 

Goodrich, Elizur, displacement of, 
422. 

Goodwm, Elder William, 100, 101, 
110. 

Granger, Gideon, 427. 

Great Awakening, 220-232, 233, 234, 



INDEX 



549 



237, 239, 240, 241, 253, 413; effect 

of, 270, 272. 
Greenwood, Henry, connection with 

Henry Barrowe, 10-12; teacher 

in the London church, 21. 
Griswold, Gov. Roger, 440, 450- 

452. 

Half-Way Covenant, 78, 81, 154, 
236, 247, 254, 303, 305, 362 ; terms 
of, 102 ; contradictory to Congre- 
gationalism, 105, 106; dual mem- 
bership of, 106 ; reception of, 107, 
108, 109, 112, 113, 114; admissions 
under, 128, 129; laxity of, 223, 
224 ; abrogated, 271. 

Hallam Case, 184, 185. 

Hart, Rev. William, 195. 

Hartford Church, schism in, 99-102, 
107, 114 ; Pitkin's appeal, 114 ; 
divides, 118. 

Hartford Convention, 445, 453-458. 

Hartford, North Association, on 
polity of Connecticut churches, 
150 ; on the Half-Way Covenant, 
223. 

Hartford, Second Church of, 118. 

" Hartford Wits," 323. 

Heads of Agreement, 124, 126, 137; 
discussion of, 138-141. 

Heathcote, Colonel Caleb, 178, 179, 
186. 

Higginson, Rev. Francis, 52, 53. 

Hillhouse, James, 454. 

Hobart, Rev. Noah, 315. 

Holly, Israel, 291, 292, 320, 334, 335. 

Home Missionary Society, 462. 

Hooker, Rev. Asahel, 438. 

Hooker, Richard, ecclesiastical pol- 
ity of, 24, 25. 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 62, 77, 88, 
99. 

Hooper, John, Bishop, refusal of 
Romish vestments, 5. 

Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, 306-308, 363. 

Hough, Atherton, 46. 

Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 71. 

Independent, usage of the word, 2. 
Ingersoll, Jared, 325, 326. 
Ingersoll, Jonathan, 401, 464, 465, 
466, 472. 

James I, attitude of, towards Non- 
conformists, 28, 36, 37, 39; con- 
test with Puritan party, 41-44. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 394, 407, 415, 416, 
419, 422, 430, 447 ; party of, 394, 
407. 

Johnson, Rev. Francis, pastor of 
London- Amsterdam church, 21, 
29, 33. 



Johnson, Rev. Samuel, 195, 315, 318, 

320. 
Judd, Major William, 432, 433- 

435. 

Keith, George, missionary priest, 
174, 177. 

Laud, William, Archbishop, 27, 49, 
50, 51, 82, 175. 

Law, Gov. Jonathan, policy toward 
schismatics, 242. 

Law courts, character of, 403. 

Leland, Rev, John, 374-376, 393, 
404, 423, 429; "Rights of Con- 
science," 374r-376 ; speech at 
Hartford, 387-389 ; " Van Tromp 
lowering his Peak," etc., 429. 

Leverett, Thomas, 46. 

Lewis, Rev. John, 361, 302. 

Liberal Theology, 302, 306. 

Licensure, ministerial, 142, 269. 

Litchfield County Foreign Mission 
Society, 462. 

Liturgy, reform of English, 23. 

Liveen Case, see Hallam Case. 

London-Amsterdam church, 20, 21, 
28, 29-31 ; number of communi- 
cants, 21. 

Lung, Peter, case of, 475-477. 

Luther, 5. 

Madison, Pres. James, 447. 

Magistrates, New England view of, 
60. 

Manufactures in Connecticut, 459, 
460, 473. 

Massachusetts, colonists of, 1, 58; 
freemen of, 65 ; control of 
churches, 66-70 ; controversy with 
Roger Williams, 69, 70; Antino- 
mian controversy, 71 ; Synod of 
1637, 71 ; Body of Liberties, 72 ; 
platform of church discipline, 69, 
70 ; Presb)i;erian cabal, 87 ; Cam- 
bridge Synod, 87, 90 ; Ministerial 
Convention of 1657, 102; Half- 
Way Covenant, 102, 108 ; Synod 
of 1662, 108 ; " Proposals of 1705," 
133-135, 332 ; in Hartford Con- 
vention, 453. 

Mather, Rev. Cotton, 106, 130. 

Mather, Rev. Richard, 1, 106. 

Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, 305, 306, 
307, 310, 315, 316, 321. 

Methodism, 358. 

Methodists, 358, 369, 405, 407, 410, 
411, 415, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 
487, 495. 

Milford, First Separate church of, 
277. 

Millenary Petition, 28, 37. 



550 



INDEX 



Ministerial Convention of 1657, 106 ; 

questions left unanswered, 115. 
Missions, 386, 387, 414. 
Mohegan Indians, 183. 
Moravian missionaries, 265-267. 
Morse, Rev. Asahel, 487. 
Muirson, Rector George, 178, 179. 

Navigation laws, 324. 

Neuters, definition of, 377. 

New Divinity, 302, 307. 

New England churches, character 
of, 57. 

New England Confederacy. See 
Confederacy of United Colonies. 

^New England Way" (The), 83, 
85. 

New Haven Church, New Light 
schism, 248-253. 

New Haven Colony, churches in, 
73 ; opposition to ecclesiastical 
changes, 103 ; to the Half -Way 
Covenant, 107 ; absorption by 
Connecticut, 109; Quakers in, 
165. 

New Haven Convention [Rep.], 
433. 

New Lights, 238, 239, 264, 270, 271, 
274, 280, 281, 282, 336, 425; in 
New Haven church, 248-253 ; in 
the Canterbury church, 253-255, 
258-260; in the Enfield church, 
262. 

Newspapers, 300, 301, 326, 351, 352. 

Norton, Rev. John, 106. 

Norwich, church of, difficulty in 
collecting the minister's rate, 
148-150. 

Noyes, Rev. Joseph, 248, 249, 252, 
281. 

Old Calvinists, 238, 239. 

Old Lights, 238, 239, 264, 269, 270, 

274, 281, 
Owen, Rev. John, 263. 

Paine, Elisha, 287. 

Paine, Rev. Solomon, 254, 257, 287, 
288, 289 ; memorial of, 268. 

Parker, Matthew, Archbishop, 27. 

Parsons, Rev. Jonathan, 241. 

Particular Court, 395. 

Partridge, Rev. Ralph, 106. 

"Pelham," 455. 

Pennsylvania, University of, found- 
ed, 322. 

Perkins, William, 6. 

Peters, Rev. Hugh, 82. 

Peters, John T., 427. 

Phenix, or Windham Herald, 428. 

Phi Beta Kappa, Bishop's oration 
before, 420, 421. 



Phoenix Bank of Hartford, incorpo- 
ration of, 441-444, 465. 

Pigott, Rev. George, 195. 

Pitkin, Hon. William, appeal for 
church privileges, 110-114. 

Plan of Union, 1801, 3G6. 

Plan of Union, Franklin's, 322, 323. 

Plymouth, settlement of, 29, 33, 34 ; 
friendship with Salem, 47, 48; 
eldership in, 56 ; church of, 97. 

Plymouth Colony, friendship of, 
with Salem, 47-53. 

"Points of Difference," 31, 32, 119. 

Pomeroy, Rev. Benjamin, 241, 263, 
269, 

Prayer, Monthly Concert of, 271. 

Presbyterian and Congregationalist, 
118, 341, 3G3 ; terms interchange- 
able, 150. 

Presbyterian cabal in Plymouth, 87. 

Presbyterian, Congregational, or 
Consociated Church, 273, 357. 

Presbyterian General Assembly, 
embryo of, 73 ; work of, 319, 386. 

Presbyterian literature in Massa- 
chusetts, 72. 

Presbyterianism, of Cartwright, 23, 
24 ; of the Millenary Petition, 28; 
in England and the Colonies, 82 ; 
in Cambridge Platform, 98. 

Presbyterians, under Elizabeth, 27; 
among Puritans, 49; under Wil- 
liam and Mary, 124. 

Proposals of 1705, 133, 134, 332. 

Prudden, Rev. Peter, of Milford, 
107. 

Ptmderson, Rector Ebenezer, 281. 

Puritanism, origin of term, 5. 

Puritans, reason for leaving Eng- 
land, 1 ; origin of term, 5; policy 
of Elizabeth toward, 22-26; of 
James I, 28, 35, 36, 39, 41-44; 
idea of reform, 38 ; approachment 
to Separatists, 34, 35, 37-39 ; un- 
der Charles I, 44, 45 ; scheme of 
emigration, 45, 46, 52 ; settlement 
at Salem, 47, 48 ; Presbyterianism 
among, 49 ; Laud's persecution of, 
51, 52, 

Quakers, 157, 160, 186, 187, 239, 299, 
319, 425, 467, 469 ; early converts 
in Connecticut, 164-167 ; organi- 
zation of the society of, 167; atti- 
tude of Connecticut towards, 169 ; 
persecution of, 169 ; law against 
" Heretics, Infidels and Quakers " 
annulled, 170, 185 ; complaints of, 
183, 215; test case in Massachu- 
setts, 215, 216; exemption from 
taxes in Connecticut, 216, 217, 
371. 



INDEX 



551 



Beforming Synod of 1679-80, 122, 
123, 125, 126, 136, 138. 

Religion, crimes against, 420. 

Republican party, 445, 446, 449, 450, 
463, 464, 478, 492 ; organization 
of, 417 ; General Committee of, 
431. See also Democratic-Repub- 
lican party. 

Revivals in New England, 221, 222, 
226 ; character of, 230 ; of 1800- 
1825, 413-415. See also Great 
Awakening. 

Rhode Island, 75, 453. 

Robbins, Rev. Philemon, 263, 269. 

Robinson, Rev. John, pastor of .the 
Leyden Church, 33, 34, 56. 

Rogerines, 157, 160-164, 187, 204- 
206, 371. 

Rogers, James, 161. 

Rogers, John, 161, 163, 164, 204. 

Rogers, Joseph, 161. 

Ross, Robert, his " Plain Address," 
141. 

Rotten Boroughs, 397. 

Salem, settlement of, 47-52 ; friend- 
ship with Plymouth, 47-53; for- 
mation of church at, 52-54 ; Salem 
covenant, 54 ; controversy with 
Williams, 69, 70. 

Saltonstall, Gov. Gurdon, elected 
governor, 135 ; attitude toward 
dissenters, 159, 164, 186, 204, 207 ; 
courtesy to Episcopalians, 174 ; 
death of, 198. 

Sandemanians, 340. 

Savoy Declaration or Confession, 
125, 126, 137. 

Saybrook Articles, 137 ; discussion 
of, 141-146 ; attitude of the 
churches towards, 144. 

Saybrook Platform, 138-146; 264, 
269, 270, 271, 273, 274, 299, 335- 
339, 341, 365; proviso in, 153- 
156, 233 ; effect of, 222. 

Saybrook Synod, 136, 137. 

Saybrook System, 99, 289. 

Seabury, Samuel, Bishop, 197, 354, 
406. 

Seeker, Bishop. See Episcopate. 

Senate. See Council. 

Separate Church of Enfield, 261, 
262. 

Separate churches, 234-236. See 
New Haven Chvirch, Milford 
Church, Enfield Church, Canter- 
bury Church. 

Separatism. See Separatists. 

Separatist and Congregationalist, 
239. 

Separatists, origin of the term, 5; 
in England, 6, 20, 21, 25, 27, 29, 



30, 34, 37 ; in exile in Holland, 
31 ; their writings, 31-34 ; under 
James, 36, 37; Scrooby-Leydea 
church, 39 ; influence upon New 
England churches, 39, 40 ; in Sa- 
lem, 64 ; of the 18th century iu 
Connecticut, 234 et seq., 273, 274, 
276, 277, 278, 279, 282, 283, 284, 
291, 292, 299, 327, 328, 333, 334, 
335, 336, 365 ; of Enfield, 261, 262 ; 
expelled from the Assembly, 269 ; 
of Saybrook, 277 ; petition to the 
King, 279 ; exemption of, 333-335; 
communion with, 336. 

Services or order of worship, 56, 57. 

"Seven Articles, (The,)" 31, 32, 
33. 

Sewall, Rev. Joseph, 229. 

Shakers, 340. 

Shepard, Rev. Thomas, 106. 

"Shepherd's Tent, (The,) ". 255, 
258. 

Sherlock, Bishop. See Episcopate. 

Sherman, Roger Minot, 454. 

Skelton, Rev. Samuel, of Salem, 52, 
53. 

Smalley, Rev. John, 307. 

Smith, Rev. Henry, of "Wethersfield, 
106, 

Smith, Gov. John Cotton, 438, 451, 
463, 466, 472. 

Smith, Nathaniel, 454. 

Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, 193, 194, 
313 ; formation of, 176, 178, 186; 
reputation of priests, 198. 

Society for the Suppression of Vice, 
437. 

Stamp Act, 317, 324. 

Standing Order, 357, 372, 405, 411, 
421, 432, 436, 446, 471. 

Stand-up Law, 400, 408, 437, 478. 

Stiles, Pres. Ezra, 345, 347, 348, 
363, 412. 

Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, 129, 144, 
221, 224, 226. 

Stoddardeanism, 129, 130, 154, 224, 
303, 362. 

Stone, Rev. Samuel, 77, 100, 101, 
106, 108. 

Stratford, Episcopal church in, 194. 

Strawbridge, Robert, 358. 

Strong, Gov. Caleb, 450, 451. 

Street, Rev. Nicholas, 269. 

Strong, John, of Norwich, 428. 

Stuart, House of, absolutism of the, 
41. 

Sugar Act, 317, 324. 

Swift, Judge Zephaniah, 370, 376, 
377, 428, 454, 475, 476. 

Synod, Savoy. See Savoy Declara- 
tion. 



552 



INDEX 



Synod, Cambridge. See Cambridge 
Synod. 

Synod of 1657 (so-called). See Min- 
isterial Convention of 1G57. 

Synod of 1662, 108. 

Synod of 1680. See Refomiing 
Synod. 

Synod, Saybrook. See Saybrook 
Synod. 

Talbot, John, missionary priest, 
174, 175, 177, 185, 192. 

Talcott, Governor Joseph, policy of, 
1 98 ; replies to Bishop Gibson, 
198-200, 205, 206, 207 ; attitude 
toward the Baptists, 217 ; death 
of, 242. 

Taxation, ecclesiastical, in Connect- 
icut, Massachusetts, T^ew Haven, 
and Plymouth, 58-60, 94 ; in Con- 
necticut, 153, 154, 201, 217, 338. 

Taxes, 452. See also Franchise. 

Taylor, Rev. John, 412. 

Teacher. See Officers under Church. 

Tennent, Rev. Gilbert, 228, 229, 
237, 241. 

Three Articles, The, 23. 

Toleration Act, of 1708, 191, 192, 
264 ; text of, 154 ; terms of, 187 ; 
discussion of, 188-190 ; refusal of, 
to Presb5i;erians or Congregation- 
alists, 235 ; extended to dissenters 
in Nevir Haven and Milford, 250 ; 
repeal of, 250, 260. 

Toleration and Reform Ticket, 471. 

Toleration Party, 444, 466, 471, 479, 
480, 492. 

Tolerationists, 444, 466, 471, 479, 
480, 492. 

Treadwell, Gov. John, 487. 

Trinity College, 495. 

" True Confession," 31. 

" True Description," 31. 

" True Republican," 428. 

Trumbull, John, 323. 

Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, 275. 

Unitarians, 340. 
Universalists, 340. 

Wallingford, church of, 278. 

War of 1812, 444, 445, 446, 450-452, 

458-461 ; proposed terms of peace, 

452. 
"Warham, Rev. John, 77, 106. 



Watertown, church of, 55, 68, 97. 

Webster, Noah, "A Rod for the 
Fool's Back," 423, 435. 

Webster, Rev. Samuel, 304, 306. 

Wesleyan College, 495. 

West, Rev. Stephen, 307. 

Western Lands, 360, 361 ; bills con- 
cerning, 367, 368-392, 393, 414. 

Western Reserve, 342, 361. See also 
Western Lands. 

Westminster Assembly, 84. 

Westminster Confession, 126. 

Wethersfield, church of, 74. 

Wetmore, Rev. James, 195, 315. 

Wheelock, Rev. Eleazar, 241. 

Wheelwright, Rev. John, 71. 

White, Rev. John, of Dorchester, 
England, 47. 

Whitefield, Rev. George, 241, 248; 
in Carolina, 226; in Boston, 227; 
in Newport, 228 ; visit to Edwards, 
229 ; estimate of Mr. Tennent, 237. 

Whitgift, John, Archbishop, 25, 
27. 

Whittlesey, Rev. Samuel, 195. 

Williams, Roger, 46; controversy, 
69, 70. 

Williams, William, 401. 

Windham Herald, 428. 

Windsor church, creed of, 55 ; 
adopts the Half-Way Covenant, 
106. 

Winthrop, Gov. John, 55, 68, 71. 

Winthrop, John, questions the Con- 
necticut law of entail, 207-214. 

Winthrop, Major Fitz-John, mission 
to England, 181. 

Wise, Rev. John, 332, 333, 365. 

Wolcott, Alexander, 487. 

Wolcott, Gov. Oliver, 464, 466, 472; 
inaugural of, 472-478 ; second in- 
augural, 481. 

Wolcott, Gov. Roger, 275, 336. 

Worship. See Services. 

Wyclif, John, preachers of, 4. 

" X Y Z Papers," 416. 

Yale College, 495; founded, 261 ; ex- 
pels the Cleavelands, 255, 257, 258, 
261; expels David Brainerd, 256 ; 
opposes the New Lights, 256 ; 
church of, 280-282 ; legislature 
favors, 378-380 ; honors an 
copal clergj'man, 405. 



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